Seventeen people, including 2 young children,
were rescued after abandoning
the the Syrian-flagged cargo vesselM/V Seven
Seas in distress off Cyprus on 31 Dec.
The survivors, described as 12 Syrians & 5 Romanians, were
winched to safefy by British royal air force and Cypriot police
helicopters some 33 miles south-east of the east Mediterranean
island. Most were crew of the vessel, which was laden with a cargo of
steel on its way from Ukraine to Djibouti on the Horn of Africa. When
rescue teams arrived about an hour after the 1st distress
signal was issued the survivors were
found on 2 rafts. A helicopter search failed to locate the ship.
Police said they were still investigating what triggered the distress
call. "We assume it is on the sea bed by now," a rescue official told
Reuters. The survivors included 2 young children. Whole families
living in ships is not uncommon & many merchant ships now have
such facilities. The distress signal was 1st picked up via satellite
by British forces stationed in Cyprus. (Fri. Dec. 31 1999)

The Russian-flagged tanker M/T
Volganeft 248 split
in two & partially
sank
near Turkey's biggest city of Istanbul overnight after running
aground in heavy winds, a maritime official said on 28 Dec.
Television pictures showed the front half of the ``Volganeft 248''
sinking into the sea, while the stern remained afloat in the Marmara
Sea off Istanbul. Crew members stood at the railings awaiting rescue.
"As far as we know, the lives of the 17-person crew have been
saved,'' an Istanbul maritime official said. The ship sank because of
stormy weather conditions. There is no disruption to Bosphorus
traffic. Environmental protection officials are at the site now
trying to take precautions against any spillage. Turkey's narrow
Bosphorus and Dardenelles straits, linked by the Marmara Sea, are one
of the world's busiest and most treacherous shipping lanes and the
scene of frequent sinkings, collisions and ships running aground.
Tankers use the straits to transport oil from Russia and the Caucasus
to world markets. Turkey opposes the increased tanker traffic, citing
the danger to the some 10 million inhabitants of Istanbul which sits
astride the Bosphorus straits. But Turkey is unable to restrict the
traffic since the straits are governed by the 1936 Montreux
Convention which guarantees free passage to all merchant vessels in
time of peace. Ships are not obliged to take on a pilot. Turkish
authorities halt traffic in the straits during harsh weather when a
large tanker is passing through, forcing other ships to anchor off
the coast. Two tankers and one container ship have already run
aground off Istanbul this month. On the opposite, Asian, shore of the
Marmara Sea 15 small boats at anchor in a marina sank in the storm.
The worst accident in the Bosphorus in recent years was in 1994 when
a Cyprus-flagged tanker collided with a freighter, killing some 29
seamen and causing large oil spills. Some 20,000 sheep were killed
when a livestock vessel sank in the Bosphorus in 1991. (Thurs. Dec.
30 1999)

A 5 month-old baby was among 6 people
airlifted from a stricken Dutch ship off the northeast coast of
England on Saturday, British coastguards said. The 2,000 gt coaster
M/V
Confidence, carrying a cargo of
fertiliser, issued a mayday signal when it was battered by gales and
rough seas as it sailed towards the English port of Berwick-on-Tweed.
An air force helicopter was sent to evacuate the captain, his wife,
their baby and three crew. "As ever, but particularly on Christmas
morning, our 1st priority is safety. No injuries have been reported,"
said coastguard spokesman Stuart McGill. "We have been in touch with
the Dutch owners who are presently seeking tugs in order to bring the
crew-less vessel under tow but this may take some time given the
prevailing weather conditions." (Christmas Day, 1999)

A crewman died on Christmas Eve from
injuries sustained when raging seas swamped the 38,000-ton container
ship gt M/V OOCL
Belgium off the southwest coast of
England as heavy rains and gales continued to sweep through the
country. His body remains on board and is continuing its passage to
Canada. Three other crew from the vessel were airlifted to hospital
with various broken bones -- fractured shoulders, spine and head
injuries -- they received when a massive wave hit their vessel. Their
injuries were severe but that the 3 men were in stable condition.
(Fri. Dec. 24 1999)

The Chinese cargo vessel
M/V Xin
Zhujiangsank
in the Taiwan Strait all its 28 crew were rescued but the captain is
missing, Xinmin Evening News said. She was a 35,000-ton ship owned by
the Guangzhou Haidian Shipping Co, which developed mechanical
problems & sank in poor weather near the Pescadores islands off
Taiwan. She was carrying iron ore on the way to China's eastern city
of Nanjing from Australia. The accident followed one of the nation's
worst maritime disasters in recent years last month, when 280 people
died after the ferry Dashun caught fire & capsized off the coast
of Shandong province. (Fri. Dec. 24 1999)

The Philippine motor ferry M/V
ASIA SOUTH KOREA (2,436 gt) sank early
today off Bantayan Island. 602 people have been rescued, 9 were dead
and 58 were still missing. Philippine maritime history includes the
world's worst peacetime sea disaster -- the death of more than 4,000
people in Dec. 1987 when the ferry M/V
Dona Paz & an oil tanker collided
near Manila. Then too, most of the passengers were people going home
for Christmas. Despite frequent sea disasters, ferries remain the
most popular means of long-haul transport in this largely
impoverished archipelago of more than 7,000 islands because fares are
cheaper than air travel. The government has launched a program to
upgrade the industry but over-age vessels still ply Philippine
waters. (Fri. Dec. 24 1999)

The criminal
ship M/V Kobe Queen
I has been captured.
See the story below (Fri. Dec. 24 1999)

Dutch tanker
M/T
BERNICE (1,252 gt,
built 1978), Belfast for Liverpool, was deliberately
grounded at Cultra,
Belfast Lough, after taking water through a hole in her hull.
Vessel's engine-room is flooded & vessel has complete power
failure. Temporary repairs are to be effected before refloating
operations begin. (Mon. Dec. 20 1999)

The Maltese tanker
M/T
ERIKA (19,666 gross),
Dunkirk for Leghorn with fuel oil, broke
in two & sinking
in bad weather in lat 47 12N, long 04 34W, Dec 12. All crew safely
rescued. The 25-year-old tanker Erika, carrying 25,000 tons of fuel
oil, broke into two in heavy seas. The
bow & stern both sank on Dec. 12 and
experts estimate that between 8,000 and 15,000 tons of oil have
escaped from the ship's various holds. (Mon Dec. 13 1999)

The 30,000 dwt Liberian tanker
M/T Louise
was forced to make
a run for the open
waters of the Atlantic
after it was fired upon by pirates
18 miles off the coast of Guinea, West Africa. The 1988-built ship
suffered extensive damage to its accommodation block & bridge
when 15 men wearing brown uniforms raked it with fire from
fixed-mount machine guns as well as rockets. An attempt to board the
tanker from their small grey military-style vessel failed when they
were spotted, although there were initial fears amongst the crew that
one of the attackers might have climbed aboard before the tanker
escaped. Fortunately, none of the tanker's crew were injured in the
attack, which saw bullets pierce steel bulkheads & cabins and
badly damage the bridge & radio room. The tanker lost contact
with the pirate boat as it headed due west at full speed following
half an hour of continuous gunfire, according to the Baltic Int'l
Maritime Council, Bimco. (Sun. Dec. 12 1999)

The Maltese-flagged freighter
M/V
Winter, carrying over
17,000 tons of cement clinker, ran
aground near
Bangladesh's southwestern Mongla port. The ship ran aground in
shallow waters, 62 miles south of Mongla port at 9 a.m (0300 gmt) on
Wednesday The port was sending a tug to help refloat the ship during
full tide. There is no report of damage to the 29,129 dwt ship. The
consignment & all the 23 crew were safe on board The 171.81 meter
long ship was carrying the cement from a Thai port to Mongla.

M/V YALIKOY
II (499 gt, built
1966) sank
about 120 miles northeast of Eregli, in the Black Sea overnight, Dec
8. The 10 man crew was picked up by an Italian flagged vessel, after
spending more than 4 hours in lifeboats. (Thurs Dec. 9
1999)

M/V APOLLO FALCON
(4,255 gt, built 1972)
reported engine problems in lat 48 49.5N, long 04 44.3W, on Dec 5.
She was taken in tow early next day, bound for Brest. (Wed Dec.8
1999)

A ferry carrying 18 people
& 51 tons of diesel oil ran aground off the Scottish west coast
after it was caught in rough seas. A tug was sent to rescue the
stricken P&O-run M/V
European Highlander,
which was stranded on a sandbank near Ardrossan harbor. (Wed. 8 Dec.
1999)

A Maltese-flagged tanker
carrying crude oil from Russia to Italy ran
aground in the Marmara
Sea off Istanbul. The M/T
Histria Seatidewas grounded as it entered the Marmara Sea from the narrow
Bosphorus Strait. It was carrying crude oil from Russia's
Novorossiisk port to Augusta in Italy. There were no immediate
indications of any oil leakage on the vessel, which the crew were
trying to free through their own efforts. (Mon Dec. 6
1999)

UPDATE: An uncharted
rock probably caused the capsize
of heavylift vessel M/V
Mighty Servant 2, and
the loss of 5 lives, last month. The ship's owner, Belgian company
Dockwise, says a new, specially commissioned hydrographic survey of
the area near the Indonesian island of Singkep has discovered a
"single isolated pinnacle of granite directly on the ship's course."
The rock is not on existing charts.

LAX - 27 Dec. 1999 -- There is a
dramatic end to the story reported to you in The
Cargo Letter [345 &
346], as a world wide search for the renegade freighter
M/V Kobe Queen I
came to a conclusion last week.
Elements of the Indian Coast Guard captured this criminal ship
following a running gun battle on the high seas.

M/V KOBE QUEEN
1 was scheduled for Rio Haina,
Dominican Republic, in early Aug. 1999, but failed to arrive with
her 15,000 metric ton cargo of finished steel worth over
US$5M.

The 1976-built 18,500 dwt vessel had sailed
from Istanbul, Turkey in July, departing Dakar after a short call
on Aug. 3. Then contacted & said diverted by Odessa-based
owner Babush Marine, both Babush & the ship's master Capt.
Yuri Levkovsky refused to give details of the location or
destination of the Kobe Queen I. The vessel was ultimately
declared a criminal and sought by world governments, including Her
Majesty's Customs & Excise. A global sea chase had begun with
a US$100,000
reward posted for information
leading to arrest of the Panamanian registered bulk
carrier.

Kobe Queen I is known to have bunkered at
St. Vincent, Cape Verde, at the end of Aug. and again at Lagos
over Oct. 18-19. The ship, which dodged a close attempt at arrest
while in Lagos, left port with supplies & fuel for about 6
weeks. After standing out of Nigeria, the vessel went
incommunicado. Communications from Babush Marine in Odessa
resumed, but were sporadic & very unclear, and then ceased
again. Every effort was made to spread the word on this matter,
through Lloyd's agents, The
Cargo Letter, port authorities, law
enforcement, steel brokers & breakerage agents. This type of
criminal activity threatens every charterer, cargo broker,
underwriter, forwarder & shipper.

On 24 Dec. 1999 (23 Dec. in the West), the
chase ended as the Indian Coast Guard patrol vessel
Vikram
with 2 escorting naval aircraft closed in on Kobe Queen 1 off
Pondicherry, India ...
and prepared for gun action!

Watchful eyes at Wilson & Co Ltd, the
Madras Lloyd's Agents, had spotted the criminal ship, now renamed
M/V Gloria
Kopp. Following a report to local
authorities, plans for an immediate interception in Indian waters
went forward.

Despite being out of stores, watch standers
had evidently remained vigilant as the Vikram
was spotted some 6.5 miles within Indian waters. The now renegade
pirate crew weighed anchor, making for open sea under cover of a
storm and the hoped for protection & immunity of Int'l waters
13.5 miles off shore. Gun fire was exchanged with the pirates as
the Vikram also battled strong winds & high waves to finally
over take and board Kobe Queen I.

The hot pursuit ended only after an on deck
scuffle forced the 25 Ukrainian crew to surrender.
Capt.
Levkovsky was not found among the
assembled prisoners.

Under guard, the Chief officer of Kobe
Queen I was sent to the Captains cabin. The missing master would
be summoned to Int'l justice.

Only when the cabin door was broken down
did a final tragedy for M/V
Kobe Queen I become known. Capt.
Yuri Levkovsky was found hanging from a nylon rope, an apparent
suicide. Other reports to The
Cargo Letter attribute death to a
single gunshot.

Her pirate days over, Kobe Queen I has been
towed to port. Both vessel & crew remain under arrest &
facing action by Indian authorities. While details of an initial
court hearing last week are pending, it will be a bleak Year 2000
(and perhaps many others) for the Ukrainian crew turned
pirates.

Although Wilson & Co Ltd. reports all
cargo to have been recovered intact, the Times
of India News Service suggests 2,000 of
15,000 ton cargo may have been sold by the
pirates in Senegal.

Permission now granted, it can be reported
here that the global search for M/V
Kobe Queen I was led by Mr. Alan
Spear, Director of the special unit "Operation
Intercept" at Intercargo Insurance
Company, the leader in marine cargo insurance. The successful
recovery was a joint effort of cargo underwriters Intercargo,
Fireman's Fund & Alliance Insurance who had insured the cargo
for over US$5M. The claims are understood to have been paid to the
cargo interests, but these grateful underwriters are now said
prepared to congratulate the sharp eyes of the Lloyd's Agents,
Wilson & Co Ltd. at Madris with payment of the US$100,000
reward.

The courageous actions of all who took part
in this historic effort are expected to send a warning signal to
the "Pirate
Mafia" that vessel hijacking will
end with death & detention, not financial rewards. The tide
has begun to turn as our industry begins to take action against
the common threat. Though hanging was the traditional punishment
for pirate captains, few are recorded for a master having betrayed
the trust of his own command.

The Cargo Letterwishes to thank our many readers who
have contributed global sighting information to us over the past
90 days of this historic search for M/V
Kobe Queen I.

***Pirates
Get Death .......... as in its biggest high-seas
piracy case in years, China has
sentenced 38 pirates to death for crimes including the slaying of
23 seamen who were bludgeoned to death & dumped overboard.
Prosecutors alleged that the 38 defendants, who went on trial 10
Dec., were members of a gang that posed as anti-smuggling police
to hijack 3 ships in 1998. One of those hijacked was the
M/V Chang
Sheng, a freighter carrying coal
cinders. Prosecutors say the
pirates handcuffed, tied up &
gagged the ship's 23 crew members. The gang allegedly then
bludgeoned the crew members to death & tied heavy weights to
their bodies before dumping them into the sea, the state-run
Beijing Morning Post said. Members of the gang were charged with
crimes including murder, robbery, and possessing weapons, drugs
& explosives. This is seen as China's biggest case of
high-seas robbery & murder in 50 years of Communist Party
rule. The trial opened in the Shanwei City Intermediate People's
Court in the southern coastal province of Guangdong, lasted 6 days
and ended on 22 Dec. The pirates were all Chinese, except for an
Indonesian identified in Chinese newspapers as Suoni Wei, and have
10 days to appeal.

***Pirates
Take Another Hit ............... as the hijacked cargo ship
M/V Alondra
Rainbow has been recovered after
being boarded by the Indian Coast Guard 200 miles off the coast of
Goa. The vessel's occupants initially claimed that the ship was
the Belize-flagged M/V
Mega Rama, bound from Manila.
However, when it became clear that there was no such ship the
coast guard was ordered to detain the vessel. Despite repeated
orders to stop accompanied by warning shots, the pirates only did
so after being fired upon directly by an Indian navy missile ship.
An attempt to dispose of the evidence by setting fire to the
vessel & its documents before opening the seawater intake
valves to scuttle the ship was thwarted by the coast guard
boarding party. The handling of the operation by the Indian
authorities was praised by Capt. Mukundan of the Int'l Maritime
Bureau. "This was a perfect example of cooperation between the
shipping industry and law enforcement"; he said. Noel Choong, the
IMB's regional director in Kuala Lumpur, echoed these sentiments,
saying: "The Indian coast guard did a very good job. It is the 1st
time a large operation of this kind took place to combat piracy."
All 15 pirates, who claim to be Indonesian, are currently being
held in Bombay for questioning. 4,087 tons of the original cargo
of 7,000 tons of aluminum ingots were still aboard at the time of
the ship's seizure.

***Pirates
Attack ........... as the 30,000 dwt Liberian tanker
M/T
Louise was forced to make a run for
the open waters of the Atlantic early this month after it was
fired upon by pirates 18 miles off the coast of Guinea, West
Africa. The 1988-built ship suffered extensive damage to its
accommodation block & bridge when 15 men wearing brown
uniforms raked it with fire from fixed-mount machine guns as well
as rockets. An attempt to board the tanker from their small gray
military-style vessel failed when they were spotted, although
there were initial fears among the crew that one of the attackers
might have climbed aboard before the tanker escaped. Fortunately,
none of the tanker's crew were injured in the attack, which saw
bullets pierce steel bulkheads & cabins and badly damage the
bridge & radio room. The tanker lost contact with the pirate
boat as it headed due west at full speed following half an hour of
continuous gunfire, according to the Baltic Int'l Maritime
Council, Bimco.

***Another Search For Missing Ship -Pirates?.........
as the Int'l Maritime Bureau has issued an alert for the
long-overdue Thai-flagged ro-ro ferry M/V
9 Sea Star 4. The 461 gt,
1965-built ship left Hong Kong with 8 crewmen on board on Oct. 14
bound for Thailand and has not been seen since. Anyone sighting
the missing vessel should report it the IMB piracy reporting
center through The
Cargo Letter. However, the length
of time since the ship was last sighted makes it unlikely that it
will be seen again, unless reports of its arrival or loss have
'slipped through the net' and this is merely a case of
mis-reporting.

***Pirate
Parrot Hoists His True Colors ......... as a foul-mouthed
parrot called Percy has been sacked from the cast of a British
children's show for forgetting his lines & swearing on stage.
Percy initially behaved himself as he perched on Long John
Silver's shoulder in rehearsals for "Pirates on Treasure Island."
But the 17-month-old Amazon parrot stunned the cast at an arts
center in Blandford Forum, in western England, when he forgot his
lines & let fly a string of expletives. Instead of shrieking
"Pieces of eight," he blurted out "Piss off mate" and "Bugger
off." The Jakes Ladder Theater Company decided not to risk a
repeat in front of an audience of children & kicked Percy off
the cast. Mark Hyde, 45, who plays Long John Silver, said: "I
could not believe what I was hearing. One minute the rehearsal was
going perfectly and then Percy comes out with this. We all stood
there in stunned silence before we burst out laughing." The hunt
is on for a replacement parrot with no prior maritime
experience.

Norwegian catamaran/passenger
ferry M/V SLEIPNER
(500 gt, built 1999),
Stavanger for Bergen with 89 people on board, struck a rock near
Ryvarden lighthouse, off Haugesund, evening of Nov 26 & sank 40
minutes later. Seventy people were rescued from liferafts, however 13
people were killed and 5 are still missing, presumed dead. (Mon. Nov.
29 1999)

A freak wave which struck the
Hapag-Lloyd-owned M/V
Europa during a
transatlantic voyage injured 30 passengers after cabin fittings &
furniture were torn from their mountings. The incident, which
occurred west of the Azores in severe weather, was only reported when
the ship reached Bermuda several days later, and only appeared in the
German media once the ship docked in New York. The injured passengers
suffered broken bones as well as cuts and bruises and were all
successfully treated on board both by the ship's doctor and another
doctor who was travelling on the vessel. (Mon. Nov. 29
1999)

The Marshall
IslandsM/V ELIZA
(5,938 gt) reported
fire & explosion in lat 10 21.9N, long 84 13E, at 2220, UTC, Nov
25. At 2329, UTC, vessel reported fire decreased but flooding and
listing 10-deg to starboard. Requires assistance. Reported at 1110,
UTC, Nov 26, that vessel abandoned and two tugs proceeding, ETA
evening of Nov 27. Ship was c arrying 261 TEU containers for
Bangladesh. The 126-metre-(378-foot)-long freighter was sailing some
200 miles (320 kms) off the Indian port of Madras. All 22 crew
including the Egyptian captain abandoned the ship in a lifeboat, he
said without giving further details. There were containers of
industrial chemicals, raw cotton, onion & other commodities
aboard. (Sat Nov. 27 1999)

At least 140 people died &
172 were missing after passenger vessel M/V
DASHUN caught fire,
foundered & broke up in stormy waters off the east coast of China
on Nov 24., near the port of Yantai. The ro-pax ferry Dashun with 312
passengers & crew on board, caught fire as it sailed from Yantai
in Shandong Province to the port of Dalian in the teeth of heavy seas
and gale force winds. Distress signals were sent out at 4:30 PM on 24
Nov. afternoon & passengers took to the lifeboats. No rescuers
appeared until the following morning, by which time many of them had
frozen to death in the boats. At least 120 bodies have been recovered
while 22 survivors have been taken to hospital. The fire on board the
ferry was eventually put out in evening and the ship drifted to
within one & a half nautical miles of the shore, where it
capsized & sank just after midnight. This is the 2nd of operator
Yanda Ferry Shipping's ferries to sink in recent weeks, with the loss
of the
Shenlu 30 miles off
Dalian last month. China's last big maritime accident was in 1994
when 133 people died after a collision between a ferry & a
freighter on the Yangtze River. With up to 170 people still
unaccounted for, the loss of the Dashun could be the country's worst
ever maritime disaster. (Fri Nov. 26 1999)

Maltese M/V
REDA (1,949 gt, built
1976), with cargo of diammonium phosphate, broke from her moorings at
Gunness Wharf, River Trent, Nov 24 and drifted aground on west bank
of the river. The vessel, which sustained hole in port bow ballast
tank, was towed to Gunness Wharf to discharge cargo & then to
Hull for drydocking. (Thurs Nov. 25 1999)

Bermudan container vessel
M/V CANMAR
TRIUMPH(16,680
gt, built 1978) had engine failure & grounded in St. Lawrence
River on Nov 21, blocking the channel. Vessel was towed to Montreal
and cleared to proceed on voyage for Italy following inspection.
(Tues. Nov. 23 1999)

The hijacked
M/V ALONDRA
RAINBOW loaded from
Indonesia was chased & arrested 430 km off Goa by the Indian Navy
on the Arabian Sea, 16 Nov. 1999. After shots were fired, 15
Indonesian pirates were captured. The 7,000 gt vessel will be
escorted to Mumbai for investigation. The masked pirates with
automatic weapons & long knives had taken the vessel on 22 Oct.
and renamed her M/V
MEGA RAMA. (Tues 17
Nov. 1999).

The hijacked
M/V ALONDRA RAINBOW
loaded from indonisia
was chased & arrested by the Indian Navy on the Arabian Sea, 16
Nov. 1999. The vessel will be escorted to Mumbai for investigation.
The pirates had renamed the vessel M/V MEGA RAMA. (Tues 17 NOv.
1999).

The North Korean fish factory
CHIL BO SAN
(9,162 gross) grounded while fishing
during a heavy storm in the Bering Sea, in lat 60 27N, long 169 30E,
Nov 9. Sustained serious damages and flooding. Some crew taken off.
Tug on scene, however, salvage hampered by bad weather. (Sat. Nov. 13
1999)

Brazilian rescue workers on 12 Nov. held out
little hope of finding more survivors among dozens still feared
missing from a wreck of the ferry M/V
Captain Pinheiro on the Amazon River
that killed at least 3 people. A woman & 2 children drowned and
55 others were rescued after the low-riding Captain Pinheiro ferry
sank on the night of 10 Nov. after crashing into rocks in an
archipelago near the riverside town of Coari. "The search is now more
for bodies (than survivors)," said a journalist in the Amazon town of
Coari, quoting river traffic officials. "They have found 55 survivors
since the ferry capsized." While the vessel's official register lists
only five people as missing, witnesses said up to 100 people may have
been aboard the boat when it sank. Firefighters said as many as 50
people may have disappeared into the swirling waters of Latin
America's longest river or been trapped in the boat. The Captain
Pinheiro left Manaus, capital of Amazonas state heading for the town
of Tefe with 51 people officially on board. It had traveled some 150
miles (240 km) upstream, picking up to as many as 30 passengers at
farms and villages on the way, before sinking 9 miles (15 km) west of
Coari. The boat plunged to a depth of 130 feet (40 meters). Witnesses
said the ferry was so weighed down with grain and other merchandise
that the turbine engines were submerged as it moved through the murky
waters. When the boat hit the rocks it sank within 2 minutes.
Transportation officials have often criticized the ferries on the
rivers of the dense Amazon rain forest for taking on too much cargo
to navigate safely through their strong currents. One of 3 lifeless
bodies area fishermen pulled from the turbulent Amazon waters
belonged to the 1-year-old granddaughter of the ship's owner &
another to a 5-year-old boy from Brasilia who had been visiting his
sick grandmother. (Fri. 12 Nov. 1999)

The Belize-registered freighter
M/V Semele
(5,945 gross), Nikolaev for Algeria
with steel sank at the mouth of the Bosporus Strait after colliding
with M/V Sipka on 6 Nov. Passing ships rescued the 18 crew of the
Semele, which went down shortly after colliding with another
freighter, the Bulgarian-flagged M/V
Sipka. The strait remained open after
the accident, which left a large oil slick. The 6,000-ton Semele was
enroute to Algeria with a load of steel from Nikolaev in Ukraine. The
16,000-ton Sipka was heading to Varna, Bulgaria. It was damaged but
not in danger of sinking. The accident came as an Istanbul-based
environmental group, the Nature Warriors, was staging a demonstration
against tanker traffic in the Bosporus Strait. Some 440 million
barrels of oil transit the Bosporus each year & nearly 3,500
ships pass through each month. Some 200 accidents over the last
decade in the strait, which bisects the ancient metropolis, have
caused oil spills & fires that sometimes shut down the strait.
Shipka sustained damage & is anchored at Ahirkapi.(Sat. 6 Nov.
1999)

Liberian refrigerated M/V
DOLE AMERICA (10,584 gt, built 1994),
bound for Antwerp loaded with bananas, contacted Nab Tower
Navigational Aid in Southampton Water and sustained water ingress.
Vessel has damage to three starboard tanks forward, as well as
flooding in engine-room. Salvage team on board. (Mon. Nov. 8 1999)

UPDATE: The
master of the 10,400 dwt reefer ship M/V
Dole America which
nearly sunk after striking a lighthouse off the south coast of the
UK has been fined US$5000 for endangering ships, structures &
persons by failing to navigate his ship safely. The vessel hit the
90 foot high Nab Tower lighthouse in excellent weather in the
early hours of Nov. 7, badly damaging the ship, which began to
list heavily as it took on water. Salvage tugs had to beach the
ship to avoid having it sink. Norwegian master Alf Aas had
intended to steer east of the lighthouse but changed course when
he saw the red lights of fishing vessels ahead. He accepted that
it was an error of judgement to fail to spot the tower, which is
equipped with a lighthouse beacon flashing every 10 seconds and
visible from 16 miles, "a massive structure easily detectable on
radar." The UK Maritime & Coastguard Agency, prosecuting, said
that they had appreciated the full cooperation of the captain, who
"had shouldered his responsibilities admirably."

Devastating floods have killed 223 people
across 6 coastal Provinces in Vietnam. The Air Force & Navy are
helping to rescue stranded people and search for missing fishing
vessels. One thousand people have been trapped in 3 trains for
several days in Quang Binh Province. (Sat. Nov. 6 1999)

The Netherlands Antilles semi-submersible
heavy load carrier M/V
MIGHTY SERVANT 2 (21,162 gross),
Singapore for Cabinda, capsized in lat 00 48S, long 104 20E, Nov 2.
The 1983-built ship, owned by Belgium-based offshore heavylifting
group Dockwise, had a crew of 20 and was carrying an 8,790 ton
offshore production module at the time of the accident, which
reportedly occurred in calm seas. The ship is currently on its side
in 35m of water, with 5m of its hull still above the surface. Divers
searching the vessel discovered the bodies of 2 Dutch & 2
Filipino crewmen inside the vessel, and the search for a remaining
man has entered its final stages inside the wreck. This was a very
impressive, huge & famous vessel. (Wed. Nov. 3 1999)

UPDATE: An
uncharted rock probably caused the capsize of heavylift
vessel M/V Mighty
Servant 2, and the
loss of 5 lives, in Nov. 1999. The ship's owner, Belgian company
Dockwise, says a new, specially commissioned hydrographic survey
of the area near the Indonesian island of Singkep has discovered a
"single isolated pinnacle of granite directly on the ship's
course." The rock is not on existing charts.

Four hundred people had to evacuate the Greek
ferry M/V Superfast III
after a fire broke out in its garage
deck which left 14 Kurdish stowaways dead. The ship had 307
passengers & 106 crew on board when the blaze started 15 miles
into its voyage from the Greek port of Patras to Ancona in Italy.
(Wed. Nov.3)

The Isle of Man M/V
DONNINGTON (7,788 gross), Norway for
Hunterston in ballast, had main engine shutdown due to smoke in
engine-room in lat 58 41.7N, long 05 03.1W, Oct 31. One engine
restarted. Taken in tow by tug/supply vessel Portosalvo bound
Ullapool, where ETA Nov 1. (Tues. Nov. 2 1999)

***Pirates
Out of Control ......... as the Int'l Maritime Bureau (IMB) in
London defines piracy
as "the act of boarding any vessel with the intent to commit theft
or other crime and with the capability to use force in the
furtherance of the act.''

Piracy
flourishes where it always has: in the Caribbean where Henry
Morgan & Blackbeard once ruled the waves, off North Africa
where corsairs once plundered the Barbary Coast, in the Far East
where the pirate
junks of the famed Chieftain Ching Yih were the scourge of the
South China Sea, in the Malacca Straits where some 2,000 ships a
day pass from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean.

In the first 9 months of this year, the IMB
recorded 180 cases of
piracy, ranging from petty theft of
cash & parts to hijacked oil tankers. In 1998, it reported 202
cases. But, officials say, most high seas crimes never get
reported. According to the IMB, a ship can be hijacked to order
for US$300,000 in the Philippines and delivered in 3 days.

The latest in this high-stakes game of
high-seas crimes is a phenomenon known as phantom ships. Hijacked
by pirates,
a ship is repainted, the crew dumped or killed, the cargo
transferred or sold. The ship sails into a new port with a false
name & false papers. To the legitimate seafaring world, it is
a phantom. The case of M/V
Anna Sierra is a good example. The
Cyprus-registered general cargo ship left Bangkok for Manila on
Sept. 12, 1995, carrying US$5M worth of sugar. Steaming through
the Gulf of Thailand, it was hijacked by 30 masked men, who sped
alongside in powerboats, clambered aboard and set the ship's 23
crewmen adrift on rafts. Rescued by fishermen, the crew alerted
the piracy center, which immediately sent word to ports &
offered a reward. Days later, the ship was located in the Chinese
port of Beihai. It had been renamed "M/V
Artic Sea" (misspelled by the
pirates). But its original name was still faintly visible,
revealing its true identity. Pressed by the IMB, Chinese officials
boarded the ship and placed the crew under guard. Then began a 9
month war of words & paper to ascertain ownership. After
endless wrangling, the authorities gave up. The
pirates
were sent home to Indonesia. The
ship was abandoned by its owner and, to this day, sits rusting in
a Chinese port. The losers: the companies that insured the ship
& its cargo.

Maritime organizations like the IMB &
the Int'l Maritime Organization (a branch of the UN) are trying to
change this, pressing governments & ship owners to work
together to combat high seas crime. They've had some success, but
Int'l cooperation has not been uniform. For example, the case of
the Singapore freighter M/V
Hye Mieko. In June 1995 it was
hijacked off Cambodia by a ship resembling a Chinese customs
launch and forced to sail more than 1,600 km through international
waters to Shanwei, in south China. Although the ship's plight was
broadcast worldwide, not a single vessel came to its rescue. On
arrival in China, the ship was impounded. The owner, who had
followed the ship's path from a small plane, was charged with
intending to smuggle cigarettes. He was detained to cover the
crime.

A very partial list of
recent
Pirate cases
include:

Jan. 9, 1998: An oil tanker
owned by Shell Int'l Trading was boarded by 4 armed pirates in
Santos, Brazil. They shot 2 British crew members &
threatened to blow up the ship.

Jan. 24, 1998:Pirates
boarded a freighter docked in the Miami River at night. They
pistol-whipped the crew & then jumped overboard to avoid
capture by police.

March 3, 1998: An Australian
yacht was sailing toward the island of Manus, in Papua New
Guinea, when it was hailed by local women selling vegetables
from a dugout canoe. As the yacht pulled alongside, 9 men armed
with long knives & axes leaped from the canoe, overpowered
the yacht's crew, stabbed the captain & stole goods worth
thousands of dollars.

April 16, 1998: Twelve armed
pirates
hijacked a Malaysian tanker carrying a cargo of gas oil &
kerosene from Singapore to Vietnam. They forced the crew to
sail to Hainan Island in China, where they attempted to sell
the cargo, before being intercepted by police.

March 17, 1999: Twenty
pirates
with face-masks & machine guns boarded a Panamanian cargo
ship in Thailand. The crew was set adrift in inflatable rafts.
They were picked up by fishermen. The ship turned up in
southern China under another name.

March 28, 1999:
Pirates
armed with knives, machetes & machine guns boarded a
Panamanian bulk carrier anchored in Sapele, Nigeria. They
ordered the crew to the bridge, where they began firing their
guns and smashing up equipment. Several crew members were
injured.

April 9, 1999:
Pirates sped alongside a
Lithuanian refrigerator ship in Zaire, firing at it with
machine guns. The pirates boarded and stole cash &
valuables.

April, 1999:Pirateswith long knives boarded an Irish chemical tanker off Lepar
Island in Indonesia, taking 2 crew members hostage and stealing
cash from the master's safe.

May 4, 1999:Pirates
boarded a Finnish yacht off the northeast coast of Somalia,
took the crew hostage and demanded ransom.

June 8, 1999: Armed
piratesin speedboats hijacked a Thai oil
tanker off the east coast of Malaysia & set 16 crew members
adrift.

June 24, 1999: Somali
pirates
attacked & hijacked a German yacht en route from New
Zealand to a tourist island in the Indian Ocean. They held crew
members hostage and demand US$50,000 in ransom.

July 20, 1999: Twenty
armed
pirates boarded a Bahamas
chemical tanker with a crew of 17 Russians off Lagos near the
Pennington Oil Field. They beat the crew, took hostages &
removed equipment from the ship.

Sept. 11, 1999: Armed
pirates
boarded a British yacht as it was sailing around the world. One
of 5 crew members was shot & buried at sea the next
day.

***Thai Pirates
Strike ......... as 17 crew members of the missing cargo ship
M/V Alondra
Rainbow have been found by
fisherman in Thai waters. The ship was hijacked by 10 pirates
armed with pistols and swords on Oct. 22 and the crew transferred
to a smaller vessel. The hijackers set them adrift in a 20-man
raft a week later with supplies, albeit limited, of food &
water. The crew spent 10 days drifting in Thai waters, during
which 6 ships passed them by despite their use of flares and other
emergency signals, before they were found & rescued by Thai
fishermen. The 17 men are all reported to be in good health. There
has still been no reported sighting of the hijacked vessel
itself.

***Yemen Pirates
Strike .............. as pirates sprayed bullets into an
Australian family yacht near the coast of Yemen & the
vacationers were eventually rescued by a Saudi Arabian oil tanker.
Moya Tucker, resting with her husband & 2 children at a Yemeni
army resort in Aden, said her family were shaken but none was hurt
in the incident which occurred on 12 Nov. Tucker, who is from New
South Wales, said the family were sailing near the Aden coast when
5 pirates in a fishing boat stopped them, claiming they were
policemen. The pirates began firing at the yacht when Tucker tried
to speed away. "The men fired many shots into the cockpit,
breaking the windows, and we were lying on the floor. I had to
crawl along to the children who were terrified," she said. But the
pirates caught up with the yacht & 3 of them came onboard. "We
came out of the cockpit. They said they were policemen &
ordered us to sit down. They kicked me & my boy on the head.
Then he asked for money," Tucker said. She told the gunman that
she only had 50 British pounds, but he went inside searching for
valuables -- taking a video cassette recorder, a computer screen
& some fruit. The pirate asked for whisky and she gave him
some as well as a bottle of wine. But the alcohol sparked an
argument with his colleagues, who forced him to leave the bottles
behind. Help came about one-and-a-half hours later, when a Saudi
oil tanker located them & towed the yacht into the port of
Aden. The military commander of Yemen's southern region,
Brigadier-General Mohammed Maqoulah said the Yemeni government
would pay for repairing the yacht which is expected to take about
3 months. The pirates were captured on 14 Nov. and will stand
trial.

***Brazil Takes Steps Against
Pirates
........ as the Brazilian government has stepped up its war
against pirate activity in its seaports with a new maritime police
force, known as Nepom. It will operate in the ports of Santos
& Rio de Janeiro to prevent crimes against ships in port or
anchored in territorial waters. These crimes may range from armed
robbery, drugs & weapons trafficking, & waterway
terrorism. "It's encouraging to see that Brazil is looking beyond
just armed robbery," said Thomas Timlen of the Baltic and Int'l
Maritime Council, which represents hundreds of carriers & ship
agents in Brazil. "They are taking steps to enhance their port
security." Brazil recently deployed 2 high-speed motorboats in
Santos for anti-piracy efforts. The government plans to add 7 more
motorboats & split them between Santos & Rio de
Janeiro.

***M/V
Carissa Update ............
as attempts on the USA's Oregon coast to remove the beached stern
section of the woodchip carrier have been abandoned until spring
next year due to increasingly poor weather. Salvors have spent the
last few weeks making strenuous efforts to haul the 120-ft hulk
out of the sand but have had to concede defeat as winter weather
sets in. The ship originally ran aground in Feb. and removing the
wreck has already been a long-running & complicated operation.
The bow section of the ship, towed into deep water, could only be
sunk with the aid of a torpedo from U.S.S. Bremerton while the
stern section has steadfastly resisted efforts to shift it out of
the sand. Salvors had hoped to remove it before the weather
deteriorated but will now have to sit it out until the spring. For
the full & quite amazing account & photos of
"The Ship That Would
Not Die", visit our special
"Gallery
of Cargo Loss"

The Panama M/V
ALONDRA RAINBOW (7,762 gross), Kuala
Tanjung for Miike, Japan, with aluminum ingots, was taken by pirates
on Oct 22. See our story above. The crew of 17 has been rescued, the
vessel remains missing (Fri. Oct. 29 1999) US$100,000 REWARD -
contact The Cargo Letter

M/V PIONER SEVERODVINSKA
(5,370 gt, built 1975), Archangel for
Honfleur with timber, grounded at the entrance to Honfleur fairway at
1100, Oct 22, due to steering problems. Vessel was refloated later
same day with tug assistance and towed into Honfleur. (Monday Oct. 25
1999)

Russian icebreaker M/V
ADMIRAL MAKAROV (14,058 gt, built
1975), towing a dry dock to the Bahamas, had towline break on Oct 14
and the dry dock was adrift off eastern Canada in the Cabot Strait
between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The dry dock, with 15 people on
board, was adrift in heavy seas for 2 days before being taken back
under tow by the Admiral Makarov on Oct 16. All 15 crew members were
reported in good health. (Mon. Oct. 18 1999)

In a suspected act of sabotage by
pirates,
an oil tanker belonging to Myanmar exploded while at anchor near the
country's tense border with Thailand on 16 Oct. Two crewmen on the
oil tanker died & a cargo ship also was destroyed. Thai police at
the nearby port of Ranong, 290 miles southwest of Bangkok, arrested 3
Myanmar nationals 5 hours after the explosion. Police said the
3
pirates were carrying dynamite and
traveling in a boat in Thai waters. They were charged with illegally
crossing the Thai border & possessing explosives. The incident
comes at a time of bilateral tension: Myanmar's military regime has
blamed Bangkok for allowing anti-Myanmar "terrorists" to operate from
Thai territory. Officials from Myanmar, also known as Burma, were not
available for comment on the explosion. (Sat. Oct. 16
1999)

The Panamanian motor ore
carrier M/V Fu Kuo
Hsin (4,556 gt) had an engine failure
on October 9 when leaving Kaohsiung as Typhoon "Dan" approached
Taiwan. The vessel dragged her anchor and began to drift. A tug
secured a line on the vessel, however, she dragged her anchor &
ran aground at Chichin, Kaohsiung. Port operating normally. (Fri.
Oct. 15 1999)

M/V
Courage, Lagos for Aveiro, due to bad
weather and possible engine failure, ran aground on the S. Jacinto
beach at Aveiro. Vessel did not enter the port before running
aground. Her 18 crew were safely taken-off. Salvage of the vessel
will be very difficult. (Fri., Oct. 22)

Passenger vessel M/V
Galapagos Discovery continued to burn
during the night & until 0900, today when she finally sank near
Balboa. 90% of the ship's hull is now under water. At the present
location the wreck does not represent a hazard to navigation but
there is some concern that the pressures caused by tidal changes
could cause her to shift towards the navigation channel. Tugs remain
at the scene to ensure safe navigation in the area. No pollution has
been reported so far and the wreck has been boomed to contain any
possible leaks. The Discovey Class vessels have led the way to
passenger comfort in cruises of discovery to isolated world areas.
This is a great loss. (Fri., Oct. 22, 1999)

Two crewmembers serving on board the 317,000
dwt VLCC tanker M/T
Atlantic Prosperity had to be flown to
hospital under UK police escort after a knife fight erupted between
them. The incident happened as the vessel entered the North Sea after
leaving Rotterdam earlier in the day. One man was treated for a stab
wound to the shoulder while the other had a severed finger. The
doctor worked on them for an hour before allowing them to be
airlifted to hospital with a police escort. Although the incident
happened outside UK jurisdiction, the involvement of the police was
requested by the Master of the vessel due to the severity of the
incident. Both men, Philippino nationals, are now being questioned.
The cause of the fight is not known. The 1995-built
Panamanian-registered vessel was unladen at the time, and heading
into the North Sea to await employment. According to the UK Maritime
& Coast Guard the ship's safety was never in any danger. (Oct.
10)

The Panamanian bulker M/V
Ocean Wave, ran aground &
developed a crack on its bottom near Bangladesh's southwestern port
of Mongla. It was carrying 14,500 tons of imported cement. (Oct.
10)

The Russian replenishment tanker
M/T
PECHENGA (8,499 gross) sustained main
engine damage in the Sea of Okhotsk Oct 7. Taken in tow by salvage
tug Atlas same day bound Aniva Bay, Sakhalin Island, where ETA about
Oct 9. (Oct. 9)

The crew of the 35,000 dwt bulk carrier
M/V
Aspidoforos successfully beat off two
pirate speedboats in the Straits of Hormuz at the entrance to the
Persian Gulf, it was reported last week. The general alarm was
sounded on board the 1982-built Bahamas-registered vessel when it
became clear that the occupants of the boats were trying to board.
The crew was put on alert, fire hoses were prepared and the vessel
undertook evasive maneuvers. After ten minutes the pirates broke off
their pursuit.

The Liberian motor ore carrier
M/V WESER
ORE, 134,366 gt, bound Taranto with
full cargo of iron ore, ran aground in Tubarao at 0015, Oct 4. Vessel
has flooding damage. Vessel, which still aground, has a slight port
list due to ingress of water in ballast tanks. Considering
off-loading part cargo. (Oct. 6)

An explosion aboard an LPG tanker
M/T Mundogas Europe
docked at Subic Shipyard in the
Philippines killed at least 5 people. A shipyard statement said the
vessel was being prepared for undocking when an explosion occurred in
a cargo tank. The 1968, 17,699 dwt ship was sold to Olympi of Chile
for US$4M last month. (Oct. 4)

***Pirate
Murders Reported ......... as the Int'l Maritime Bureau (IMB)
has cautiously welcomed recent Chinese moves against piracy. The
PRC delegate to the IMO, Guo Xin wrote a recent letter to
London-based shipping daily Lloyd's List defending China's actions
with regard to
piracy and, in particular, its
decision to repatriate the crew of the cargoship
M/V
Tenyu which turned up, renamed
as M/V
Sanei-I in China after being
hijacked between Indonesia & Korea. The original crew is
feared murdered. Passports & visas carried by the Tenyu's crew
prove, according to Ms Guo, that the 16 Indonesian men joined the
ship after the hijacking had taken place. She dismissed widely
voiced concerns that China had released the alleged perpetrators
of the hijacking as 'absolutely groundless." However the IMB
claimed that it was certain that the chief mate on the Tenyu when
it arrived in China was the same man who had been 2nd mate on an
earlier hijacked ship, the M/V Anna Sierra. According to the IMB
it was certain that this man had been involved in the actual
hijacking of the Anna Sierra. The crew operating that ship was
also released by the Chinese authorities. Ms Guo's letter also
appeared to contain new information on the bulker
M/V Cheung
Son, whose 23-strong crew is known
to have been murdered. She wrote in her letter:

"On August 15. 1999, the arch-criminal
involved in hijacking the
M/V Cheung Son was arrested and the
case has been completely settled. This has shown clearly that the
Chinese government will, within the full limits of its laws, deal
heavy blows to any criminal acts at sea."

The letter gave no further details. However
an IMB spokesman said that the
M/V Cheung Son had not yet been
located. Meanwhile the 2,000 dwt Thai tanker M/T
Siam Xanxai found in Southern China
after it was hijacked off Malaysia in June is reportedly to be
returned to its owners by the Chinese authorities. All but one of
the 17 crew of Thai nationals were dumped overboard into a speed
boat and were rescued by local fisherman in Sarawak. One crew
member was held hostage to help run the ship. The Chinese police
are reported to have arrested 10 Indonesian nationals on
piracy
charges following the detention of the tanker. Will they be
charged with crimes? This story is not over.

***The Search For
M/V Kobe Queen
1 .......... LAX - 12 Oct. 1999 --
A party with cargo interest aboard the M/V
KOBE QUEEN 1, Panamanian Registry,
Greek ownership, Ukrainian operation, is offering a very
substantial reward for information leading to vessel location and
cargo recovery, guaranteed by in cash by The Cargo Letter. M/V
KOBE QUEEN 1 was scheduled to arrive Rio Haina, Dominican
Republic, in early August 1999 and has failed to arrive. Cargo
interests suspect that the vessel may attempt to sell her cargo,
including steel, in an unknown port. Notifications should be sent
to The Cargo Letter. URGENT. Please send us full details by
e-mail, phone or fax. Contact information is always at the end of
this page. US$100,000
REWARD for information leading to arrest of the
vessel!

Vessel details are:

Name: M/V
KOBE QUEEN 1 (ex M/V
Barenbels)

Type: GGC -- General Cargo

Flag: Panama

Class: GL/NV

Gross: 12,156

DWT: 18,500

Built: 1976

Length overall: 148.9 m

Beam: 23.0 m

Depth: 13.0 m

Hull type: Double bottom

Call Sign: 3FVM8

Owners: NOMINATOR, Greece

We must find M/V
Kobe Queen 1. She may be re-flagged
or re-named. Please check your local harbor. This matter is very
important to us. The PIRATES
are the crew. McD

Bahamian passenger vessel M/V
NORWEGIAN SKY (78,200 gt, built 1999)
grounded near Tadoussac in lat 48 05N, long 69 33W, on Sep 24.
Vessel, carrying around 2,000 passengers on 10-day cruise from Quebec
City to Newfoundland and Maine, refloated same day and proceeded to
anchorage for diver inspection. (Sept. 27)

The German container vessel
M/V PUNJAB
SENATOR (53,324 gross) and the German
ro-ro ferry JOCHEN STEFFEN (5,293 gross) were in collision off
Brunsbuttel Sep 21. Both vessels sustained slight damage but were
able to proceed. (Sept. 24)

The Panama-flagged general cargo vessel
M/V EASTERN HOPE
(2,818 gt), Noro for Xingang with
about 4,000 cubic meters of round logs, was abandoned by her crew
after listing heavily following shifting of on-deck cargo in lat 21
52N, long 134 20E, on Sep 13. Vessel was subsequently reached by a
tug, which towed her into Hiroshima on Sept. 22. (Sept.
23)

The Cyprus M/V
SELNES (3,658 gross), bound Wismar
with stone, grounded in lat 54 56N, long 11 00E, Sep 20. She
refloated with tug assistance, after some cargo lightered off, Sep
21. No leakage or pollution. Now anchored to reload cargo, after
which she will resume passage. (Sept. 21)

The Sierra Leone tanker M/T
WORLD KINSHIP (49,827 gross), loaded
with crude oil, is delayed at Dar es Salaam due to a defective single
buoy mooring. The SBM is being replaced. (Sept. 18)

The Hong Kong area has been severely affected
by typhoon "York", with at least one person killed, over a hundred
injured and almost all transport above ground at a halt. Several
vessels were blown aground, including crane vessel OHI 5000 (36,367
gt) and container vessel M/V
TEMPO (16,135 gt). (Friday Sept. 17
1999)

The Russian general cargo vessel
M/V VOLGA 4003
(4,911 gt), touched bottom, causing
water ingress, in the vicinity of Gogland Island, off St. Petersburg,
on Sep 10. Vessel subsequently berthed at St. Petersburg, where an
inspection revealed torn bottom plating over a 60 foot length.
(Wednesday Sept. 15 1999)

The Singapore container vessel
M/V X-PRESS JAYA
(6,973 gt, built 1980) had fire in
engine-room Sep 10 following main engine turbo-charger explosion
about 90 miles from Jebel Ali. Vessel will be towed to Jebel Ali.
(Monday Sept. 13 1999)

The bow of the Thai LPG carrier
M/T PAK
ONE, which sank off Koh Kud, Trat, in
August 1996, has moved upwards & is now only 4 to 5 meters below
the surface. The cargo of liquified petroleum gas is keeping the bow
upright. (Saturday Sept. 11 1999)

The vehicle carrier M/V
GRANDE EUROPA (51,714 gt, built 1988)
grounded near "Kennedy Tunnel", River Schelde, while proceeding to
berth at Scheldequay, at 0300, local time, today. Vessel was
refloated at 0535 & proceeded to berth on her own. (Saturday
Sept. 4 1999)

An Argentine Boeing 737 aircraft crashed on
take-off from an airport near Buenos Aires, Aug 31. 80 people are
believed to have died in the crash. Seven passengers are believed to
have survived. (Thursday September 2 1999)

Special Article From
The Cargo
Letter For September
1999

***M/V
Ever Decent Is
"T-Boned"............ as the fire aboard Evergreen's 4,211 TEU
container vessel was finally extinguished a week after her 23 Aug.
collision with the Norwegian Cruise Line ship M/V Norwegian Dream
in the English Channel, N.E. of Dover. The Panamanian flagged
container vessel (52,090 gross), was moving ex Hamburg with a crew
of 40, bound for Los Angeles with 3092 containers. The Bahamas
passenger vessel M/V
NORWEGIAN DREAM (50,764 gross), was
on 12 day Baltic Cruise with 1,600 passengers & 800 crew,
until the collision in lat 51 26N, long 01 56E. Norwegian Dream
sustained major damage to bow & bridge and berthed at Dover
Aug 24, reporting 28 injuries. At least 5 containers where thrown
on the cruise ship deck by the tremendous force while others went
overboard. The fires were fueled by more than 40 of the cargo
ship's containers stowed with ``hazardous''
materials, including paint & paint hardener. It currently
appears that Norwegian Dream struck Ever Decent broadside, in the
port side fore middle hold. This said, the collision occurred
during clear weather, in a major shipping lane, with operating
radars. Expect certain Norwegians to walk the plank. The Ever
Decent towed to Zeebrugge after her fires were suppressed. Over a
period of six days some 6 ships sprayed a total of a million tons
(that's tons) of water onto the Ever Decent's cargo in order to
extinguish the fire. The greater part of the cargo on the 52,000
ton vessel remained intact, but perhaps soggy. Ever Decent will
resume service in the next few days, following completion of
temporary repairs at the German yard Blohm & Voss yard.
Evergreen says that the containership has now sailed from Europe
toward the U.S., before crossing the transpacific. In Oct., the
ship will reach Japan, where complete repairs will be carried out
during a dry-docking. General average has been declared on the
ship. Most of the 1,800 TEUs on board the ship were unloaded in
Zeebrugge. The Ever Decent will carry 300 undamaged containers to
the U.S. >>>>>> The contributions of our reader
Mike Patterson are appreciated. For more, see our
Vessel Loss
Dispatches, feature below.

The Barbados M/V
VANESSA C. (1,853 gt), for Great
Yarmouth with wheat, contacted a wall while entering Great Yarmouth
& later took water in a hold and settled on bottom at Berth1D,
Great Yarmouth. Crew taken off. Surveyors to attend. (Monday Aug. 30
1999)

The Cambodian bulk carrier
M/V LEVENT (19,914 gt), Belawan for
Bremen loaded, had a fire in her generator room while on passage
through Straits of Dover Aug 23. Discharged cargo at Brake same day.
Subsequently arrived Bremen Aug 25, where detained under Port State
Control after inspection. (Saturday Aug. 28)

The Canadian
F/V RED SUN (221 gt) was reported
taking water west of Petit Passage, Nova Scotia, on Aug 23. The crew
successfully halted the leak & pumped out the water and the
vessel proceeded to port under her own power. (Thursday Aug. 26
1999)

The U.S. dredge barge
MARICAVOR (571 gt) sunk at her moored
position at the Port of Miami on Aug 20. All 4 crew members evacuated
the vessel safely. Officials are on the scene to begin an
investigation into the sinking. (Monday Aug. 23 1999)

CMA-CGM resorted to unloading containers from
its 3,538-TEU vessel M/V
Ville de Capella, after failing to tug
the ship out of Hong Kong's port. The Ville de Capella, which runs
the "MEX" service between Asia & the Mediterranean, had its
journey cut short when it got caught in Typhoon Sam which hit the SAR
on 22 Aug., disrupting most maritime & cargo
schedules.

The Belize tankerM/T INES (3,838 gross) sank
following an explosion off Fujairah Aug 9. The Panamanian storage
tanker M/T THEA (68,885 gross), moored alongside, sustained damage to
her after section as a result of the explosion. 5 crew are still
missing. (August 11)

A yet unidentified tugboat & an oil tanker
collided in the thick haze blanketing parts of Indonesia, igniting
the tanker & killing
10 people. Oil leaked from the tanker,
caught fire and engulfed a nearby cargo ship. At the time, visibility
in the area had been cut to 50 yards by the smoky haze, said a port
official in Pekanbaru, 500 miles northwest of Jakarta. All the dead
were crewmen on the river tanker. (9 August)

The Dutch general cargo vessel
M/V
NOUAKCHOTT (2,800 gt) grounded at
Punta Tenefe, Grand Canary, on Aug 4. Divers are to inspect vessel
before a further refloating effort during the evening of Aug 5.
(August 7)

The Cyprus M/V
Fontana suffered engine damage after a
collision with Vietnamese freighter M/V Saigon-1 at the outer
anchorage of Bangladesh's main Chittagong port on 7 Aug. The local
agent of Fontana, said: ``Fontana has been badly damaged and its
engine broke down. We will seek compensation.'' (August 7)

The North Korean cargo ship
M/V Jang Dae
San. The Pakistan Navy rescued 43 crew
members from the ship which ran aground 90 miles off Karachi in heavy
weather. All the crew were brought safely off the ship by helicopters
& were taken to shore. (1 August)

Special Article From
The Cargo
Letter For August
1999

***Scared Strait ...........
as attacks by pirates
in the Singapore Strait have prompted fears that shipping may be
put off using the Strait and have also raised the possibility of a
major accident occurring in the busy international waterway.
Sixty-eight of the 115 actual or attempted attacks so far this
year occurred in So. E. or East Asia but the most serious incident
was in Mexico where pirates held 253 ferry passengers hostage and
threw 2 security guards overboard, one of whom drowned. The latest
IMB report says one person was killed in the period, in the
Mexican incident, compared to 26 in the first half of last year.
Nevertheless extreme violence remained a feature of many attacks
and one crewman of a tanker hijacked off Tioman Island, Malaysia,
is still unaccounted for. Attacks frequently involved taking the
bridge watchkeepers hostage & preventing them from carrying
out their duties. This means that ships are steaming without
anybody ensuring safe navigation. That is a recipe for disaster in
the crowded and restricted waterway. On Jan 16 a loaded VLCC, the
M/T
Chaumant, was attacked in the
Philip Channel. The pirates threatened the watchkeeping officer
with a machete and tied his hands. The IMB notes: "The serious
consequences due to the grounding of collision of a VLCC cannot be
overstated." Four other tankers were boarded in the Singapore
Strait.

The Greek-registered M/V
Pel Marinersank
off the Turkish coast after colliding with M/V Pel Ranger, near
Bozcaada, an island near the entrance of the Dardanelles Strait which
links the Aegean to the Sea of Marmara.. Two crew members are
missing. The Coast guard and ships in the area rescued 10 other crew
members from the Pel Mariner, which was carrying empty containers to
Turkey's Gemlik port from the Greek port of Iraklion. (27 July)

The Chinese bulk carrier M/V
Changyusank
after colliding with M/T Mee Yang, a South Korean chemical tanker
near the port of Nantong on the eastern Yangtze river. Thirty 3 crew
members had to be rescued from the 1975-built, 12,108gt bulker which
was carrying 18,000 tons of coal. The 1993-built, 1,590 gt Mee Yang
suffered minor damage & is now berthed in Jiangyin pending a
survey. (26 July)

Special Article From
The Cargo
Letter For July 1999

***Pirate
Death Claims Paid ........... as the London Club, a mutual
P&I underwriter, has settled the US$2.3M claim for
compensation for the deaths of the 23 Chinese crew of the Hong
Kong owned bulk carrier
M/V Cheung Son, which was attacked
by pirates some time after sailing from Shanghai on November 13,
1998. A number of individuals have been arrested by Chinese
authorities on suspicion of murdering the crew, but the vessel has
never been traced. The attack came to light when fishermen
discovered a number of the crew's bodies, bound hand & foot
and weighted down.

***Greatest Safety Problem:
Pirates!
.......... as the Safe Navigation Committee of the Asian
Shipowners' Forum has issued a report concerning two of the most
pressing issues concerning safe ship navigation: piracy &
stowaways. The SNC said that piracy is arguably the single
greatest menace to modern shipping today. In 1998, the Int'l
Maritime Organization (IMO) received 210 cases of piracy &
armed robberies on ships around the world. Included were ships
reported to have been hijacked with the crews killed & cargo
stolen. The committee said that 10 ships had been attacked in the
Singapore Strait in the first 3 months of this year, as against 1
or 2 in the previous year. The Singapore Police Coast Guard &
Singapore Navy have steeped up coordinated patrols with the
Indonesia Navy & Marine Police to deter future attacks in the
Strait. Because of these incidents, Asia has become widely viewed
as a piracy hotspot, said the committee. Pirates
today are well aware of the loopholes that have been created for
them and they are not slow to exploit them, escaping from one
country's waters to another, knowing that they will not pursued or
prosecuted, said the committee. On the subject of stowaways, the
committee said that this threatens crew safety and added to
shipowners' insurance costs.

***PIRATES:
The Escapees Are Very Lucky ......... as 21 crew are lucky to
be alive after surviving for 6 days on tiny swimming pool-style
inflatable rafts in the shark-infested waters off the Thai &
Burmese coasts last month. The entire 21-strong crew of the 8,100
dwt general cargo ship M/V Marine Master were ordered off their
vessel by armed pirates on March 21 and picked up by passing Thai
fishermen on March 27. News of the incident was only released last
week by the specialist anti-maritime crime body ICC-International
Maritime Bureau (IMB). The pirates
had brought along 9 tiny, flimsy
plastic rafts into which they cast the crew who were given only a
small amount of food. Most of rafts sank quite quickly while the
food ran out in two days. By the time of the rescue the men were
in a desperate state, clustered around the one raft still afloat.
The pirates are thought to have been either Thai or Burmese
speakers. They wore masks and some were dressed in military
uniforms & were armed with automatic weapons and pistols. The
Panamanian-flag vessel had been on a voyage from Nantong in China
to Calcutta with a cargo of bagged soda ash. It is owned by
Taiwanese interests and was on charter to a South Korean company.
The 1978-built ship had a black hull, dark red bottom & white
superstructure. However, the IMB warns that the vessel's name,
particulars and flag could have been changed. IMB sources believe
the ship will be used for scams against charterers in which
so-called "phantom ships" with false identities load cargo and
disappear. By any measure, matters are getting worse.

***M/V
New Carissa - A Vessel That
Would Not Die! ........... as it was a tragic month for the
storm grounded the wood chip carrier on 11 Feb. 19-99, along the
Oregon Coast. The vessel grounded, was set afire and then blown up
in an effort to burn off her bunker oil. New Carissa broke in two
and was towed to sea, only to reground herself again seventy miles
away. Towed back to sea, the embattled ship was finally set upon
by U.S. Navy gun crews and torpedoed by the submarine
U.S.S. Bremerton
on 11 March! The
Cargo Letter has assembled dramatic
photos & text which tell the whole story of this "March
Madness". Visit the site and see M/V
New Carissa under fire!
CLICK
HERE

***Pirates
More Murderous .......... as Pirates killed more people on the
world's high seas in 1998 than the year before, but the number of
attacks has dropped, says the Int'l Maritime Bureau. The modern
swashbucklers killed 67 crewmen last year, compared to 51 in 1997.
Scores of other people were assaulted and injured. There were 198
pirate attacks last year, compared with an all-time high of 247 in
1997, according to the London based bureau. The drop was due to
measures taken by ship owners & captains to keep their ships
safer. ``The pirates are getting increasingly violent,'' said the
bureau's regional manager, Noel Choong, who compiled the report.
``Years ago, they would steal the cargo, loot the ship's safe
& rob the crewmen. ``These days, the pirates are increasingly
brazen. They steal the entire ship & they kill the crew,'' he
told The AP. Since 1991 the number of reported pirate attacks
worldwide has nearly doubled. A total of 15 ships were hijacked in
1998, mostly in S.E. Asia, where there are many small islands that
make ideal hideouts for pirates. Two months
ago,
pirates killed all 23 crew members
of the bulk carrier M/V
Cheung Son sailing on the So. China
Sea, Choong said. Their bodies were weighted & flung
overboard. Days later, Chinese fishermen found 6 bodies, still
bound & gagged, snagged in their nets. Authorities in China
arrested 7 suspects, but the ship, under a Panamanian flag,
remains missing. A crisis.

***Murderous Pirates
Arrested .............. as 3 South Koreans have been arrested at
the Port of Inchon on charges of involvement with hijacking the
Japanese cargo ship M/V
Tenyu, western port of Inchon. The
2,600-ton Tenyu, disappeared Sept. 27 after leaving an Indonesian
port with a cargo of aluminum worth about US$4.3M. Five months later,
the ship was found in Zhangjiagang port in Jiangsu province near
Shanghai, China bearing a new name, ``M/V
Sanei-1,'' with a Honduran flag &
16 Indonesian crewmen on board. Before the hijacking, the ship had
been piloted by a South Korean captain, Shin Young-ju, & chief
engineer, Park Ha-joon, and was manned by a crew of 12 Chinese
sailors. All of the crewmen remain missing & were feared killed
by hijackers. Police said Lee admitted purchasing the ship & the
aluminum from 2 Chinese-Indonesians and selling them to a Chinese
company in early October, shortly after the ship had disappeared.

***IMB Warns Of
Pirate
Threat ........... as the Int'l Maritime Bureau (IMB) has
renewed its call for strong government action to stamp out piracy
in Asian waters. A spokesman for the specialist anti-maritime
crime arm of the Int'l Chamber of Commerce said: "We would like
regional government ship which attracted suspicion in the Gulf of
Thailand in the middle of Oct. The spokesman said fears were
growing for the safety of the 2 Korean & 13 Chinese crew of
the 4,240 dwt Panamanian flag dry cargo vessel M/V
Tenyu. The 1986-built vessel left
Kuala Tanjong on September 27, bound for Korea with a cargo of
3,000 tons of aluminum ingots. There has been no confirmed
sighting of the vessel since it sailed but it could have been an
unidentified.

***M/T
Petro RangerPirates
"Walk" ........... as Chinese authorities on Hainan island,
China, were, in early Oct., preparing to release 12 suspected
pirates instead of extraditing them to Malaysia, according to the
International Maritime Bureau (IMB). The 12, carrying Indonesian
identity documents were detained by Chinese police following the
discovery, off Hainan, of the hijacked Malaysian-flag tanker Petro
Ranger in May. The ship had been hijacked at sea, by 12
pirates,
en route for Ho Chi Minh City, and was diverted to Hainan. The
master and crew were subjected to considerable violence during the
hijack. Some of the ship's cargo of 9,574 tons of gas oil and
1,591 tons of kerosene was unloaded by the pirates while the rest
was eventually seized by the authorities before the ship was
allowed to sail.

1.] 2 July. U.S. Coast Guard seized
41 pounds of cocaine from M/V
Friendly Express (Belize-registry).
The vessel was sailing from Haiti to Miami when it ran out of fuel on
30 June. It was towed to the Miami anchorage by the
USCGC
Riga, where it was boarded by the
Coast Guard and the U.S. Customs Service. The cocaine was found in a
concealed compartment under the deck of a cargo hold;

2.]5 July.M/T Captain X.
Kyrinkou (Cypriot-registry) was
damaged in heavy seas while sailing with diesel fuel from Jebel Ali,
United Arab Emirates, to South Africa. It called at Aden, Yemen,
where damage was found to cable ducting on deck;

10.]15
July.M/V Nickerie
(Dutch-registry motor refrigerated
ship.) was taken in tow following engine problems. The ship will be
taken to its destination of Vigo, Spain. It is carrying frozen fish;

11.]27 July.M/V
Lindarosa as flames raced through a
cabin on a freighter in Genoa's harbor, killing 5 illegal immigrants
who had stowed away on the ship. The ship had unloaded a shipment of
cars from Tunisia. Frequent readers of this feature will note that it
was a very quiet month!

1 June tug
Kaye C.
Green sank 1 June in
Albemarle Sound north of Dare County, N.C. The 4 crew were rescued by
the tug Blackwell;

2 June
S.S. J.A.W.
Iglehart (9,460-gt,
steam bulk carrier built in 1936) damaged "Sunset Joe's", a bar &
grill in Cleveland, with its stern as it was aided by a tug of Great
Lakes Towing Co. to the Huron Cement Dock. The ship was carrying
cement from Bath, Ontario, and was docking in a storm. It suffered
superficial damage but the bar was heavily damaged;

3 June Two Philippine
crew of M/V Sea Star
(Danish-cargo) are
missing after the ship collided with the F/V
Masayoshi Maru No. 8
(Japanese-fishing vessel) and sank in the Caribbean Sea off Colombia.
The ship was sailing with 2,000 tons of cement from Barranquilla to
Port-au-Prince, Haiti;

8 June. Security
personnel in the Turks and Caicos Islands reportedly fired on a
vessel carrying 100 Haitian migrants on 8 June and it later capsized,
killing as many as 30. Unconfirmed reports state that the gunfire,
meant as warning shots, hit the sloop. Six bodies have been recovered
but they did not suffer gunshot wounds. Another report stated that
the passengers crowded to one side of the vessel after hearing the
gunfire, causing it to capsize;

8 June
M/V P&O
Nedlloyd Barcelona
(German-registry containership) and M/V
Yuan Ming (Chinese-
operated by the Chinese government) collided in the Strait of
Malacca. The containership, sailing from Jebel Ali, United Arab
Emirates, to Singapore, reached Singapore with a hole in its
starboard hull, 4.9 feet above the waterline. The Yuan Ming anchored
at Singapore with unknown damage. No injuries were reported;

8 JuneM/T Hamilton I
(Panamanian) was
disabled by fire at 34 degrees 37.1 minutes north, 15 degrees 08.4
minutes east, in the Mediterranean Sea. It was taken in tow by the
Matsas Star (Greek- registry tug) to Piraeus, Greece. The ship was in
ballast;

9 June. The chief
engineer of M/V Agios
Ioannis Theologos (Cypriot.)
was killed when an air compressor aboard the ship exploded. The
vessel was sailing from Richards Bay, South Africa, to Rotterdam, the
Netherlands, when the explosion occurred 120 miles south of
Portugal's Madeira Islands;

9 June. Three Pakistani
Navy vessels took a half-submerged, unidentified tanker in tow for
Karachi, Pakistan, after stopping an oil leak. The ship was spotted 3
June off Ormara, Pakistan, having been disabled the day before while
sailing with 5,000 tons of heating oil from Bahrain to Mumbai, India.
Oil spilling from the ship created an oil slick with a radius of up
to 40 miles. The crew was rescued by M/V Kiran (Panamanian-registry)
and the stricken tanker arrived in Karachi on 9 June. About 1,000
tons of oil remain aboard;

12
June M/V Alimad(Syrian-general cargo)
capsized & sank at the anchorage at Mukalla, Yemen. All crew were
rescued. The ship sailed from Gizan, Saudi Arabia, with 3,800 tons of
bagged cement. There were no injuries. According to the Port of
Mukalla, the Alimad anchored about 1,000 feet from the port to allow
2 other vessels to be worked. Less than three hours later, it had
sunk;

13 JuneM/V Kuo
Hsin
(Panamanian-registry containership) & M/V Sea Ranger (Myanmar-
containership) collided at Tanegashima, Japan. The Kuo Hsin was
sailing from Keelung, Taiwan, to Tokuyama, Japan, with containers
while the Sea Ranger was sailing from Tokyo to Hong Kong with
containers. The Kuo Hsin suffered severe damage to its starboard hull
including a leak from a damaged fuel tank. It returned to Keelung.
The Sea Ranger had severe starboard hull plating damage, including
around the forepeak tank. It sailed to Sasebo, Japan, on 14 June for
temporary repairs;

13 June
M/V Lidiya
(Cambodian) had
flooded & was
abandoned 400 miles
east of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean. The 2 women & 2 men
broadcast a distress message and activated an Emerding its No. 1
& 4 cargo holds, and anchored off England's Isle of Wight;

13 June, the 3 people
aboard the 44-footS/V
Golly Gee gency
Position Indicating Radio Beacon. A U.S. Coast Guard HC-130H Hercules
from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point, Hawaii, located the four
in a life raf and dropped a radio to them. Two hours later, they were
rescued by M/V Strong Texan (U.S.-registry operated by Van Ommeren
Shipping for the U.S. Military Sealift Command);

14 June. The 5 crew
of M/V Silvery
Sea are missing after
it sank following a collision with M/V Merkur (German-general cargo)
off western Denmark. An empty life raft & several pieces of
debris were found;

16 June. M/V
Aptmariner (Liberian- registry
operated by COSCO (Hong Kong) Shipping Co. Ltd.) ran aground off St.
Nicholas Island in the St. Lawrence Seaway near Montreal due to
steering problems, while sailing from Klaipeda, Lithuania, to
Cleveland and Detroit with steel coils and was re floated 18 June by
the tugs Avantage, Andre H. &Jerry Newberry. The Aptmariner
suffered forepeak damage and will be repaired at a cost of
U.S.$409,000, using 30 tons of steel;

17 JuneM/T Bunga Tanjung
(Malaysian.),
maneuvering at a wharf in Keelung, Taiwan, collided
with M/V Wei Fong No. 1
(Taiwanese-registry),
which was loaded with limestone. The Wei Fong No. 1 sank at the
wharf. There were no injuries;

18 June. A Polish Coast
Guard vessel fired warning shots at the M/V
West (Danish- registry
cargo) near Swinoujscie, Poland, after it left port without necessary
inspections. A subsequent boarding found the crew to be intoxicated,
according to the Coast Guard. The vessel left port with the Coast
Guard vessel giving chase, but did not stop despite radio &
visual communications efforts as well as the firing of 10 green
flares. Five warning shots from a deck gun were then fired and M/V
West stopped. The West was escorted back to Swinoujscie for an
inspection;

20 June
M/V
Paris (Cypriot-dry
cargo ship) had an engine room fire sailing from Amsterdam, the
Netherlands, to Medway Ports in England and after the fire was
extinguished, the Paris was towed to Sheerness, England, by the motor
tug Lady Madeleine;

23
June M/V Stadt
Cuxhaven (German-registry
containership) collided with M/V Anina in Castries, St. Lucia. The
Stadt Cuxhaven ran aground near facilities of Geest Industries (WI)
Ltd. and was refloated with stern damage. The Anina sustained a large
dent to its starboard bow;

26 June
M/V
Sunrana (Norwegian-
registry) hit a barge near the new bridge across Copenhagen Sound in
Denmark. The ship was holed on its port side above the waterline and
sailed to Copenhagen for temporary repairs. The Sunrana was sailing
from Rostock, Germany, to Tilbury, England, with bulk wheat.

26 June.
M/V Diana- Maria (Antigua &
Barbuda-registry) ran aground near La Marola Rock at Ria de Ares,
Spain, while sailing from Blyth, England, to Ferrol, Spain, with
2,000 tons of scrap metal. Flooding was reported in the engine room
and the 6 crew were rescued by a helicopter. On 29 June, work began
to lighter 20 tons of fuel as the Diana-Maria continued to flood;

26 June. M/T
Astro Gamma (Greek-registry
268,310-dwt tanker) suffered an engine room fire as it loaded fuel at
Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The fire was extinguished by local
firefighters and no one was injured. The Astro Gamma has 42 crew;
x.] 26 June. The Chilean Navy's lead ship of the Condell (PG
06)-class frigate collided with the U.S. Military Sealift Command's
Henry J. Kaiser-class Replenishment Oiler U.S.N.S. Pecos (T-AO 197)
while operating 70 miles off California. No one was injured. The
Condell was preparing to refuel from the U.S.N.S. Pecos when it
apparently had steering problems;

29 June.
M/V Woo Yang Honey (South
Korean-registry) was abandoned at 23 degrees 00 minutes north, 116
degrees 35 minutes east after it began flooding. The 16 crew were
rescued by another vessel and taken to Shantou, China, before the Woo
Yang Honey sank;

29 June. S/V
Rita Allah (Syrian-registry wooden
vessel) was towed to Limassol, Cyprus, after drifting for days in the
eastern Mediterranean Sea. Two died of dehydration & were thrown
overboard before the vessel was found. Some 115 people were aboard
when it docked;

29 June.
M/T Katerina SG (Panamanian-registry)
was disabled when the No. 5 piston in the main engine separated from
the crankcase in an explosion. The vessel was left drifting at 03
degrees 30 minutes north, 87 degrees 42 minutes east. It had sailed
from Port Klang, Malaysia, for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, & Nacala,
Mozambique, with palm oil;

1 May, M/T
Four Seas (Cayman Islands-registry)
and M/V Tong
Hai (Chinese-registry operated by
COSCO Shanghai) ran aground in the Western Scheldt of the Netherlands
while trying to avoid a collision following rudder damage to the Tong
Hai;

4 May, Eighteen
stowaways from Morocco were found in
containers at the Port of Rotterdam.
The men hit the walls of containers aboard M/V
Rendsburg (German-registry
containership) as the ship neared the port entrance. Local police
listened outside 133 containers before finding all the men. Earlier
during the ship's voyage, 32 stowaways were found during a call at
Casablanca, Morocco;

4 May, M/V
Spring Dream(ro/ro operated by Cool
Carriers A.B.) has been towed to Cape Town, South Africa, by the John
Ross (St. Vincent and the Grenadines-registry tug). The 25 crew
abandoned the ship on 17 April after it caught fire about 104 miles
west of Port Nolloth, South Africa. The crew boarded a fishing vessel
after a fire that began in the generator room & spread to the
rest of the ship. Damaged areas reportedly include the bridge;

5 May, the tug Towing
Wizard (St. Vincent & the
Grenadines) and M/V
Anangel Honour (Greek-registry)
collided just before 0100, seven miles east of Dover, England. The
Towing Wizard was sailing from Tilbury, England, to the Black Sea and
was badly damaged especially around the starboard bow. It towed to
Dover and 4 crew were hospitalized. The empty Anangel Honour has
severe port side damage including a large gash that breached the
hull;

5 May, - Military cargo - 4 crew of the
Royal Australian Navy's Underway Replenishment Ship
H.M.A.S.
Westralia (O 195) were
killed & another 9
were injured in a fire during a naval
exercise near Rottnest Island, Western Australia. The engine room
fire began and spread through a lower deck of the ship while a
ruptured fuel line was being repaired. The vessel lost power soon
after and the fire took 1.5 hours to extinguish. The dead were 3 men
& 1 woman. H.M.A.S.
Westralia is home ported at Fremantle,
Australia;

6 May, Nine
people are missing after a fishing
vessel capsized
following a collision with M/V Vishva
Parimal (Indian- registry dry cargo ship) in the East China Sea at
1900 hrs.. The fishing vessel, with a crew of 11, flooded about 81
miles off Cheju Island (Ed: one of the most beautiful places on
earth), South Korea. Two crew were rescued. Vishva Parimal was
sailing from India to Busan, South Korea;

7 May, Twelve
bodies have been found near Sabah,
Malaysia, & at least one has been identified as crew of
M/V Virgin Pearl
(Philippine-registry). The vessel sank
4 April near Balut Island, Philippines, after rough seas damaged the
ship & it lost power It had been reported that all 24 people
aboard, including the 15 crew, were rescued by M/V
Chongket. That report is now seriously
questioned. The Virgin Pearl was sailing from Manado, Indonesia, to
Davao.

14 MayM/V Star
B (Cypriot-dry cargo
ship) attempted to lift & secure a lifeboat after a drill that
had just been conducted by personnel of the U.S. Coast Guard's Marine
Safety Office in Charleston, S.C. The Coast Guard personnel went
inside the ship when the lifeboat fell and 5 of the ship's crew fell
with it. One person was killed;

1 April an unidentified cargo/passenger
vessel carrying about 300 people capsized in rough seas off S.E.
Nigeria on 1 April while sailing to Gabon. Only 20 people are
confirmed to have survived & only a few bodies have been found.
The vessel capsized in the Bight of Bonny off the Nigerian state of
Akwa Ibom;

2 April an unidentified vessel carrying
recruits of the Sudanese Army capsized in the Blue Nile near
Khartoum, Sudan; 54 people were killed and 260 are missing;

2 April
M/T Enerchem Refiner
(Canadian-registry) ran aground in St. Lawrence Seaway, S.W. of
Hamilton Island and E. of Stanely Island. Damages to cargo are not
known;

4 April M/V
Virgin Pearl (Philippine-registry)
sank near Balut Island, the Philippines. All 24 people aboard,
including the 15 crew, were rescued;

4 April M/V
Vytegra (Russian-registry) caught fire
north of Copenhagen, Denmark. The fire was extinguished and the ship
was towed to Copenhagen. The fire reportedly began in the engine room
after the ship took on 35 tons of diesel fuel and spread to the
accommodations & the bridge;

8 AprilM/V
Gerda (German-registry containership)
ran aground off Kotka, Finland, in heavy fog while sailing with
containers from Helsinki, Finland. The ship was refloated & towed
to Kotka. The ship's bow was holed over 13 feet. Four empty
containers were lost overboard;

17 April M/V
Togo Beauty and M/V
Western Team (Panamanian- registry)
collided in Gatun Lake on the Panama Canal. Both have bow damage. The
extent of cargo damage is unknown.

18 April, 2 crew of M/V
Sea-Land Mariner (Marshall
Island-registry containership) were injured on 18 April after an
explosion in a container ignited a fire that burned for 10 hours. The
ship was 130 miles southwest of Crete in Greece when the fire began.
One person was rescued from the water by a Swedish vessel and taken
to the U.S. Navy's lead ship of the U.S.S.
Wasp (LHD 1)-class Helicopter/Dock
Landing Ship;

18 April, M/T
Nissho Maru (Japanese-registry motor
chemical tanker) & M/V
Yamkuni Maru No. 3 (Japanese-registry)
collided in Japan's Inland Sea. The latter suffered damage to its
starboard side near the engine room has well as 3 cargo hold
fractures. The ship took on water and was towed to Yanai, Japan. The
Nissho Maru had minor damage;

19 April, Sri Lanka Navy vessels
attacked vessels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam early 19
April off northeastern Sri Lanka, sinking at least five. At least 10
LTTE members were killed near Trincomalee;

21 April, M/V
Koznitsa (Bulgarian-registry) grounded
in Rosario and was then hit by a barge, causing substantial starboard
hull damage;

21 April, containership
M/V Heng Hoi
308 and an oil tanker, collided in
Hong Kong on 21 April. Both vessels were Chinese. Three Chinese crew
were injured. The collision was southwest of Tsing Yi Island in the
New Territories. The tanker was not seriously damaged but the
containership began flooding;

21 April, M/V
Koon Hong 211 (Chinese-registry
containership) sank off Hong Kong. Five beaches were closed as one of
17 containers aboard the ship contained ammonium chloride. The ship
was anchored off Tuen Mun opposite Butterfly Beach, southwest of
Tsing Yi Island in the New Territories. Five local beaches
(Butterfly, Cafeteria Old, Cafeteria New, Golden & Kadoorie) were
sealed. Of the other 16 containers, 13 had batteries and 3 had metal
items. Nine of 17 have been recovered but not the one containing the
ammonium chloride;

24 April, an 11-mile section of the
Mississippi River south of St. Louis was closed after 137 barges
broke their moorings. The section reopened at 1530

25 April. One barge carrying grain sank
but the rest were recovered. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, about
24 barges broke free at a fleeting area near an Anheuser-Busch
facility in St. Louis. As they floated downstream, they hit barges in
other fleeting areas and caused the others to break free;

25 April, M/V
Rema (Belize-registry) sent out a
distress message in the North Sea while sailing with 930 tons of
redstone from Berwick-on-Tweed, England, to the Netherlands with a
crew of five. A search of the area by the British Coast Guard found a
capsized lifeboat & a small petroleum slick. The Trinity House
Lighthouse Service said this week it has found a shipwreck it
believes to be the Rema;

27 April, M/V
Marine Ranger (Liberian-registry) and
M/V North
Countess (Greek-registry) collided
south of Flores Island near Montevideo, Uruguay. Damage is not known.
The Marine Ranger was sailing to Buenos Aires, while North Countess
was sailing from San Pedro, Argentina, to Necochea, Argentina.

27 April,M/V
Heung-A Tokyo (South Korean-registry
containership) and M/T
Sun Duke (Panamanian-registry)
collided off Japan on 27 April. The Heung-A Tokyo was sailing from
Shimizu, Japan, to Ulsan, South Korea, and the Sun Duke was sailing
from China to Tobata, Japan, with coal tar;

27 April, two crew of
M/V Natalemar
were reported missing in the southern
Ionian Sea. The Syrian citizens disappeared at 0400 when the ship was
near Greece's Strofades Islands. Two life jackets are also missing;

29 April, a North Korean- registry
cargo vessel sank in the Yellow Sea after it collided with
M/V Yang
Lin (Chinese-registry 13,635-dwt dry
cargo ship operated by COSCO Guangzhou). One crew is missing and 2
were injured;

29 April, M/V
San Clemente (Liberian-registry
containership) ran aground at the access channel to a COSIPA terminal
in Santos, Brazil;

30 April, the Bagmati
River ferry capsized near Burawghat,
India, killing about 25 people and leaving 30 missing;

M/V Star II
Limassol - A Sweet
Killer.............. as a massive spill of brown sugar from
the Cypriot cargo ship
M/V Star II Limassol, damaged when
it ran aground earlier this month, may be responsible for the
deaths of thousands of fish in Kingston Harbor. Scientists suspect
the sugar may have altered oxygen levels in the harbor,
suffocating fish, crabs & lobsters now washing up on shore,
Environment Minister Easton Douglas said. The vessel dumped tons
of brown sugar as it was being towed into the harbor on April 15,
a week after running aground off Jamaica's east coast. Biologists
from the University of the West Indies & the Port Royal Marine
Laboratory were still exploring other possible causes of the fish
die off, including a chemical leak unrelated to the cargo ship.
Officials are waiting for more tests before deciding whether to
pursue charges against the ship's crew. The dangers of brown sugar
are well known.

3
March. the tug Seagull
sank 53 miles east of Assateague, Va. The tug Caicos Sound rescued
the 2 crew, but that tug, with a crew of 5, suffered a propulsion
failure. The two were sailing to Jacksonville, FL. Weather included
seas up to 6 feet & winds of up to 30 knots;

4 March. M/V
Alga (Russian-registry) sank while
berthed at Nakhodka, Russia. The Alga had just completed loading of
timber when it rolled onto its port side;

6 March. All 5 crew of the
Argentine-registry tugItacuru
were killed after a collision with M/V
Las Bolinas (Panamanian- registry) in
the Emilio Mitre Channel of the Plate River in Argentina. The tug was
towing a barge that later ran aground;

8 March. tug Bellmont
sank 205 miles east of Great Inagua, the Bahamas.
M/V Solaro rescued the 4 crew &
took them to Trinidad;

8 March. Yacht Yuyu
sank at 0330 8 March off Kushimoto, Japan, after it was in a
collision with M/T Koshin Maru (chemical tanker). The 3 crew,
including a British citizen who was the master, were rescued in the
40 minutes after the collision; .

10
March. M/V Golden
Union (Maltese, motor dry cargo ship)
lost power after its engine room flooded and the ship began sinking 4
miles S. South Africa. It was sailing from Karachi, Pakistan, to
western Africa with rice. The 33 crewmembers were rescued by 2 So.
African Air Force helicopters. On 11 March, the
M/V John Ross (St. Vincent) towed the
ship further from shore to prevent it from running aground. Heavy
weather was in the area but at last report, a decision had not been
made on the ship's fate. The Golden Union was last reported 20 miles
south of Umzimbuvu;

10 March.
M/T Nadym(Cypriot), sailing from
Pusan, South Korea, to Magadan, Russia, with 15,000 tons of fuel, was
driven aground by ice at Cape Alevia, Russia. The ship grounded on
rocks and has a holed ballast tank.

10 March.
M/V Golden Challenger
(Panamanian-registry), sailing in ballast from Venezuela to New
Orleans, had an engine room fire in the Caribbean Sea;

12 March.
Pirates attempted to
board M/V Nam
Dhiem, a Vietnamese ship, near
Cilegon, Indonesia. A 28-year-old crewmember was shot in the stomach
during the attempt;

15 March. M/V
Nafto Cement Two (St.
Vincent-registry) and M/V
Paros (Maltese-registry) collided in
Timsah Lake, at the northern end of Great Bitter Lake, which forms
part of the Suez Canal in Egypt. A sandstorm limited visibility;

16 March. M/V
Baltic Carrier (German-registry) was
in a collision with M/V
Flinterdam (Dutch-registry) in the
Kiel Canal near Breiholz, Germany. The Baltic Carrier suffered a
large hole and partially sank by the stern; 9.] 17 March M/V Amer
Prabha (Cypriot-registry) suffers an engine room explosion at a river
pier south of Bangkok, Thailand, killing 3 Indian citizens. The blast
occurred in the generator area of the ship while it was loading rice
for Nigeria;

20 March.
M/V Agat (Cypriot-registry) ran
aground at Mollegrunden;

23 March. M/V
Demetrios 2 (Honduran-registry) ran
aground on rocks 1,640 feet off western Cyprus in rough seas. The
grounding was west of the Paphos Lighthouse. All 8 crew were rescued
by a Wessex HC series helicopter of the British Royal Air Force;

21 March. M/T
Xin Tong (Chinese-registry) M/V MSC
Houston (Liberian-registry 42,323-gt, containership built in
1994) were in a collision at the Hong Kong harbor limits. The Xin
Tong took on water in its engine room and was assisted by tugs while
the MSC Houston, which had minor damage, anchored;

26 March. M/T
El Bravo (St. Vincent) and
M/T
Shauadar (Panamanian-registr) collided
in Matanzas Bay, Cuba. The El Bravo's hull was holed & the ship
spilled some of its cargo of crude oil, which it loaded in Cuba. The
Cuban government has formed a special commission to investigate the
collision;

4 Feb.
M/V Bushey
(Equitorial Guinea) is
being held for ransom off Somalia by PIRATES.
A group of about 20 heavily armed pirates forced their way onto the
ship as it sailed off the country by firing across its bow from a
speedboat. The Bushey was sailing with salt between Masawa,
Eritrea, & Mombasa, Kenya;

4 Feb.
M/V Malabo
(Belize) took on water
in its engine room. The flooding was barely controlled and the ship
sailed to Brest, France;

5 Feb.
M/V
Antelope (Honduran),
sailing from Shimizu, Japan, to South Korea w/ aluminum coils,
capsized & sank south of Cape Irago, Japan, in a storm. Of the
crew, 6 were rescued & 2 are missing. However, 3 of the 6
later died;

7 Feb.
M/V Agan
(Russian dry cargo
ship) sank 100 miles off Ulung Do, South Korea. It was carrying scrap
from Nakhodka, Russia, to Masan, South Korea. Four crew were
killed;

11 Feb.
M/V Hanjin
Barcelona ran down
& sank the processing vessel F/V Alaska off Alaska in calm seas
with clear viability. All 33 crew were rescued. There
will be an inquiry.

13 Feb. M/V
Leona I (Liberian) sank at a pier in
Dakar, Senegal, after a collision with the M/V Caro;

1 Feb. M/V
Agan (Russian) sank 40 miles north of
Ullung-do Island, South Korea, carrying scrap from Nakhodka, Russia,
to Masan, South Korea. Four Russian crew were killed, 11 others were
rescued. The Agan sent a distress message stating it was flooding in
a cargo hold and 4 vessels responded. An icebreaker took the
survivors and the 4 bodies to Vladivostok, Russia;

14 Feb. M/V
Begi (Belize) broke its moorings in
Poti, Georgia, and drifted into the Black Sea during a storm. It
later sank and the 5 crew are missing;

15 Feb. the tug
Elizabeth S. (133-gt tug built in
1944) sank on 15 Feb. near New Orleans during a storm. The
Samson
(115.2-foot tug operated by Crowley Marine Services Inc.) ran aground
near New Orleans at East Bell Pass the same day.

15 Feb.M/V
Manzur, carrying calcium oxide &
other chemicals, caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico. The ship reached
the S.W. Pass of the Mississippi River the next day, by which time
the fire was contained;

16 Feb. the barge Cherokee
hit the offshore petroleum platform
West Delta 106 in the Gulf of Mexico at 1345 and both caught fire

17 Feb.M/V
Green Wave (U.S.-registry 507.12-foot
dry cargo ship) had a crankcase explosion 256 miles off New Zealand.
The ship was sailing from McMurdo Station, Antarctica, to
Christchurch, New Zealand. The U.S. Coast Guard's lead ship of the
U.S.C.G.C. Polar
Star (WAGB 10)-class icebreaker, which
was sailing to Melbourne, Australia, after 3 months operating around
Antarctica, responded & took Green Wave in tow. The Green Wave is
chartered by the U.S. Military Sealift Command from Central Gulf
Lines Inc.;

17 Feb. M/V
Marie Bouanga (Congolese, operated by
Europea rvices Agency) collided with
M/T Zircone (Italian) off the
Netherlands. The Marie Bouanga was sailing from St. Petersburg,
Russia, to Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The Zircone was sailing to
Rotterdam with caustic soda, gasoline, kerosene and methlyine
chloride. The Marie Bouanga was towed by Eemshaven, the Netherlands.
One of its crew is missing and the ship has severe damage;

17 Feb. M/V
Shine (Honduran) sank in rough seas,
about 16 miles east-northeast of Iki, Japan. Four crew were rescued
and 1 was killed. A fishing vessel rescued the 4 South Korean
citizens but the 5th, Engineer Kim Chong Kun, 62, of South Korea, was
found dead. The Shine was sailing from South Lorea to Uwajima, Japan;

18 Feb. M/T
Conquestventure L (Liberian-registry
tanker) hit a submerged object near Robben Island in South Africa's
Table Bay. Liquid caustic soda spilled into the water from 2 cargo
tanks for 2 hours. The tanker was sailing from the United States to
Cape Town, South Africa;

21 Feb.
M/V Scot
Trader (Bahamian dry cargo ship.) ran
aground in the Humber River off Brough, England, on 21 Feb. and
developed a 50-degree list. The crew evacuated and the cargo of
timber was lightered to barges to enable refloating of the ship the
next day.

22 Feb. M/T
Hekabe(Bermudan tanker), carrying
ammonia, lost power 101 miles south of Amchitka, Alaska. Two of the
35 crew were injured when a cylinder head exploded, disabling
propulsion. Weather conditions included winds of 50 knots gusting to
75 & 40-foot seas. Repairs were made and the ship sailed to Dutch
Harbor, Alaska. The injured crew were airlifted to Anchorage, Alaska,
by U.S. Coast Guard;

22 Feb. M/V
Adria (Romanian motor dry cargo ship)
caught fire 50 miles of Casablanca, Morocco, sailing from Abidjan,
Cote d'Ivoire, to Ravenna, Italy, with general cargo including baled
cotton. The fire followed an explosion in the engine room. Three crew
were killed and 13 were rescued. The ship was last reported adrift
& still on fire;

25 Feb. M/V
Laura (Noumea motor general cargo
ship) sank in the Arafura Sea, N.E. of Darwin, Australia. All 11
crewmembers were rescued by the Royal Australian Navy's
Fremantle-class Patrol BoatH.M.A.S.
Wollongong;

26 Feb. the tug Florida
Seashore sank in 38 feet of water,
three miles south of the channel in Houma, LA;

27 Feb. M/V
Ulsund (Norwegian motor general cargo
ship) sank 16 miles off Lista, Norway. Of the 7 crew, 2 were killed
& 5 are missing. Weather conditions included gale force winds.
Two empty lifeboats and other debris was found. A distress call made
at 2030 said the ship was flooding with a list to port;

***Recent
Pirate
Incidents ........ as Bulgarian owners of M/V
Alfa BG
(Belize-formerly the Mona C.) have agreed to pay ransom for the 11
crew as well as the 22 crew of a Syrian-affiliated vessel. Both
were seized by pirates
off Somalia on 13 Jan. by about 25 armed men. Reportedly, the
Syrian vessel was towing the Alfa BG when it lost power.

On 27 Jan., it was
reported that the M/T
Clipper Sea (Norwegian)
was boarded by two pirates
approaching Dakar, Senegal, at 2355 hrs. 19 Dec. They jumped onto
the stern by using grappling hooks and climbing over the transom.
One then jumped overboard with the end of the mooring line coiled
on the deck. The second, who held crewmembers at knife point, cut
the line & leaped overboard as well.

M/V Meridian
Spica (Malaysian.)
was boarded by pirates,
28 Jan. while at Cigading, Indonesia. They stole parts from an
engine room storage area.

***Washington State
Ferries Crewmember Missing ........... as a crewmember of
M/V
Tacoma (1,400-dwt
ferry built in 1997, operated by Washington State Ferries) fell
overboard the night of 18 Feb. in Puget Sound as the vessel sailed
to Winslow on Bainbridge Island, Wash. Steven Brown, 41, of
Redmond, was reported overboard about 2000 hrs, 2 miles from
Seattle off Alki Point. The Tacoma turned around to search for the
man until U.S. Coast Guard air & sea units arrived along with
vessels & aircraft of the Bainbridge Island Police Dept. &
the Seattle Fire Dept.. Three passengers reported hearing someone
in the water and one saw a light. The man had worked for
Washington State Ferries since May as an "on-call" able bodied
seaman. Brown was last seen near the 2nd mate's office on the main
passenger deck. Washington State Ferries has moved to formally
convene a board of investigation to probe the circumstances
surrounding the apparent drowning death of this crew member of the
ferry M/V
Tacoma.

1 Jan.
M/T
Lancer
(Bahamian-23,093-dwt chemical tanker) had an explosion aboard shortly
after departing Campana, Argentina. The crew abandoned the ship but 2
were killed and 6 are missing;

1
Jan. M/V Oak
(Bahamian) was
reported listing & adrift with 13 people aboard, as a Beaufort
Force 10 storm approached. The Oak has stabilized with a 6-degree
list;

4 Jan. 17 crew of
M/V Amanah
were rescued by
helicopters after the ship ran aground off Keelung, Taiwan; .] 8
Jan. M/V Filomena Lembo (Italian) had an engine room fire in the
Black Sea. It has been extinguished but damage is unknown;

4 Jan. Two
containerships have received damage after they collided at
Felixstowe, UK. M/V
Newark Bay (U.S.-registry
59,810-dwt, Sea-Land Service) hit the M/V
MSC Insa
(Mediterranean Shipping) after bad weather parted tow lines to the
Newark Bay as it was berthing. The MSC Insa, already at a berth, was
pushed into a mud bank. No containers were OUTWARDLY damaged.

9
Jan.
PIRATES attacked the
M/T
Isomeria (British
operated byShell) at the Port of Santos, Brazil. Two crew, both
British citizens, were shot by Uzi weilding PIRATES while propane at
a terminal of Petroleos Brasileiros S.A.;

11 Jan.
M/T Timoan
(Honduran) was
captured by PIRATES
who beat up the crew,
smashed communication equipment, stole cash & personal effects
& transferred about a 1/3 of the ship's 3m litre cargo of
gasoline to another, unidentified tanker off the Malaysian coast near
Pulau Auro. It lasted about15 hours. The crew were bound &
had their eyes covered with tape. The Tioman had been on a voyage
from Singapore to Thailand;

15 Jan.M/V New
Baron (Panamanian
operated by Cho Yang), sailing from Okgae, South Korea, to Lae, Papua
New Guniea, ran aground on rocks in strong winds & heavy seas and
later sank. Two Philippine crew were killed &18 are
missing, including the Master;

15 Jan.M/V Sunny
Glory (Belize) ran
aground leaving the Port of Kashima, Japan. The ship took a starboard
list near a breakwater & almost capsized, with most of its
superstructure submerged. Two crew are missing;

16 Jan.
M/V
Flare (Cypriot)
broke-up & sank. in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A Canadian
government helicopter rescued 4 crew from a capsized lifeboat but 15
others were killed and 6 are missing.

18 Jan.
M/V Agios
Pantaleinos (Honduras)
sank 28 miles south west of Sardinia Island with a cargo of ammonium
solphite. The cause was a shift of cargo due to very bad sea
conditions. Of the 9 crew, only 2 have been rescued by Italian
coast guard helicopters;

20 Jan.
M/T Dae
Won (South Korean) had
an explosion & fire in its No.1 cargo tank while anchored at
Ulsan, South Korea. The crew was cleaning the ship's tanks.
Four people were rescued, 3 were killed and 1 is
missing.

28 Jan., a search for
M/V
Universe 808 (Belize)
after it failed to arrive at Yokkaichi, Japan. The ship left
Kawasaki, Japan 27 Jan. rive at Yokkaichi to load cargo including
polystyrene before sailing to China. The vessel & all hands
are presumed lost;

30 Jan.
M/V Kirre
(Estonian-registry)
sailing from Riga, Latvia, to Seaham, England, with timber, had a
cargo shift in high winds & rough seas off Klaipeda,
Lithuania. The Kirre had a 10-degree starboard list and 40% of
its cargo was dumped overboard;

***London Reports
1997 Losses ......... as fewer seafarers lost their lives last
year compared to 1996, according latest reports from the Institute
of London Underwriters (ILU). Figures show a marked fall in the
number of fatalities among crew serving on ships of over 500 gt,
from 1,190 in 1996 to 263 last year. There were also fewer total
losses last year. As of the end of Dec., 89 ships had been posted
as total losses, compared to a comparable figure for 1996 of 105.
Although fewer ships were lost last year, the total tonnage
involved was up, 739,164 gt against 653,775 gt by the end of 1996.
Fifty-one crew were killed and 30 injured aboard vessels
during
PIRATE attacks last
year, according to the Int'l Maritime Bureau. In its annual report
of piracy, released 19 Jan., the Bureau said that there were 229
PIRATE
attacks aboard ships last year.

***Aft Section of
M/V MSC
Carla Heads To
Breakers ........ as what remains of the Panamanian-registry
55,241-gt, 40,912-dwt, 2,868-TEU motor containership built in 1972
at Landskrona, Sweden; operated by Mediterranean Shipping Co. has
left Las Palmas in Spain's Canary Islands under tow for demolition
in No. Spain. The ship broke into 2 pieces on early 25 Nov. during
a storm 110 miles north of Sao Miguel Island in Portugal's Azores
Islands. The ship broadcast a message late 24 Nov. that its rudder
had failed and 2 Portuguese military helicopters rescued all 34
crew from the aft section. The M/V
MSC Carla's stern
was taken in tow by the tug Fotiy
Krylo. The forward
section, with as many as 1,200 CTNRs aboard, sank 30 Nov. The MSC
Carla was sailing from Le Havre, France, to Boston with 2,400
CTNRs. See the disaster at our Gallery
of Cargo Loss -
CLICK
HERE

***Mystery Of The
Missing Cargo Ships ............ as The International Maritime
Bureau (IMB), a London-based specialist agency of the Int'l
Chamber of Commerce, is concerned that a number of ships have
disappeared along with their cargo in recent months. IMB Dir. P.
Mukundan said there was "reason to believe" the ships had ended up
in China. Among vessels IMB is tracking are M/V
Chosun Hope, with
9,000 tons of jute from Bangladesh for Brazil &
M/V
Okavango, with
5,000 tons of urea from Indonesia for Vietnam.
PIRATES !

7 Dec.
M/V Celtic Warrior
sunk after a collision
with M/V
Anagret off Greece.
Details are few, but there are no reports of lives lost. HMS
Invincible is on scene.

3 Dec.
M/V Promex Cita
(11,599-dwt) sank off
Ly Son Island, Vietnam. The ship was carrying granite floor tiles
from China to Indone r the damage, the ship sailed towards the
Vietnamese coast before it sank in 100 feet of water;

7 Dec.M/V Celtic
Warrior sunk after a
collision with M/V Anagret off Greece. Details are few, but there are
no reports of lives lost. HMS Invincible is on scene.

7 Dec.M/V Celtic
Warrior (Bahamian)
sank off Cape Sounion on Agios Georgios Island, Greece. The ship had
collided with the M/V Annegret. The 9 crew of the Celtic Warrior, all
Polish citizens, were rescued by the Annegret. Celtic Warrior
remained afloat 5 hours. Several containers were reported floating in
the area after the ship sank;

9 Dec.M/V Kashi Maru No.
8 and
M/V Settsu Maru No. 5
collided off Japan's
Izu Peninsula. The Kashi Maru No. 8 subsequently drifted and sank
near Higashiizu, Japan, as the result of heavy damage on its port
side amidships. Some of the ship's fuel spilled. Each ship had 5 crew
but no one was injured.

12 Dec.
M/V Buffalo
(11,619-gt, American
Steamship Co.) struck the Detroit River Lighthouse in Michigan,
causing the bow to be crushed in, extending from below its anchors to
below the waterline. The ship took on water but was allowed to
proceed to Toledo Shipyard. Weather conditions included clear
visibility with seas up to 3 feet. The lighthouse's stone foundation
had minor damage;

13 Dec.M/V Equator
Joy (Singaporean-
general cargo ship) was abandoned at 03 degrees 12 minutes north, 108
degrees 56 minutes east, after it began sinking. The 18 crew were
rescued and taken to Singapore;

13 Dec. Belgium has
arrested the master of
M/V Ocean Transporter
(Turkish-registry), which collided with F/V
Noble Art (French-
registry) off Brittany. The Noble Art sank 4 hours after the
collision and the Ocean Transporter ignored a French order to return
to assist, saying that it was carrying urgent cargo. The Ocean
Transporter sailed to Ghent, Belgium, where the ship arrived 16 Dec.
and unloaded Brazilian soya;

14 Dec.
M/V Canadian
Explorer and
M/V Island Skipper
(Greek-registry
28,479-dwt) collided about midnight arnois Locks in the St. Lawrence
Seaway. Aboard the Canadian Explorer, two vents, two lights & the
gangway were destroyed and several ribs were bent. The Island
Skipper, following the collision, hit the bullnose of a dock and
suffered damage that included holing to its No. 2 cargo hold.

16 Dec.
M/V Gonave
Express(Belize) sank 55 miles southeast of Miami, in a storm. A U.S.
Coast Guard helicopter rescued the crew in 10-foot seas. The ship
broadcast a distress call at 0200 after it lost propulsion and began
to flood;

16 Dec. A fire aboard
M/V Slanic
(Romanian-cargo ship.)
in a floating dock at Constanta, Romania, has destroyed most of its
superstructure. Damage its estimated to be at least US$500,000;

17
Dec. M/T Orange
Star
(Norwegian-registry 18,302-gt) ran aground near the Yenikoy area of
Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus Strait was closed to allow for
refloating;

19 Dec.
M/V
Venice
(Honduran-wooden freighter) caught fire at an anchorage in Port
Everglades, Fla. The Florida Marine Patrol rescued all 6 crew. The
Venice drifted and came ashore, where the fire was extinguished by
personnel and equipment from U.S. Coast Guard Station Fort
Lauderdale;

20 Dec.
M/V Kukawa(British
containership.) caught fire in the English Channel. The fire began in
the engine room but spread. Ten of 33 crew were taken by helicopter
to M/V
Triton Diamond
(Panamanian) but the remainder stayed aboard to fight the fire with
26 British & 2 French firefighters;

20 Dec.
M/V
Anjana
(Bahamian-registry) is believed sunk south of Norway after the ship
began flooding and took on a heavy list. The crew of 12 was rescued
by air;

23 Dec.
M/V Lotus Islands
(Panamanian-registry
15,175-dwt dry cargo) broadcast a distress call that said the ship
was sinking in the Pacific Ocean. Three vessels were at last report
sailing to the area to begin a search;

Special Article From
The Cargo
Letter For December
1997

***M/V
Merchant Patriot
Hangs On ............. as the Hong Kong-registry 17,028-gt,
21,310-dwt, 493-foot general cargo ship operated by Cenargo Ltd.
began flooding 30 Dec., 310 miles east of Cape Canaveral, FL.
Weather conditions included seas up to 20 feet & winds gusting
to 50 knots. The crew of 28 jumped overboard after the ship's
lifeboat was knocked off the stern and conditions ruled out
helicopter hoists from the ship's deck. Two HH-60G Rescue Hawk
helicopters from the U.S. Air Force Reserve's 920th Rescue Group
at Patrick AFB, FL.; two HH-60J Jayhawk copters from U.S. Coast
Guard Air Stn. Clearwater, Fla.; & a Jayhawk from the Coast
Guard's Operation Bahamas in Nassau, rescued the crew from the
water. It was planned to transfer them to
M/V Pearl Ace
(Mitsui O.S.K.), which had diverted to the area after being
contacted by the Automated Mutual Vessel Assistance Rescue System
(AMVER). However, given weather conditions, crew were flown to
Marsh Harbor, Great Abaco Island, the Bahamas. M/V
Merchant Patriot
was sailing from Praia Mole, Brazil, to Savannah, Ga., with cargo
containers & steel project cargo. A seawater pipe in the
vessel's engine room burst and flooding went out of control after
a patch failed. Some containers have reportedly been lost. She was
last was last reported to be under tow by the tugs Maasbank
(Dutch) & Samand to Freeport, the Bahamas. We pray for calm
seas.

2.] 2 Nov. as 1
crewmember was killed and 2 are missing after an explosion aboard the
M/T Han Chang No. 5
(South Korean) while
anchored at Ulsan, South Korea, waiting to load cargo;

3.] 4 Nov. Three
people of 10 that hid in a container loaded with clothing from the
Dominican Republic were found dead the after the container was
unloaded from M/V
Pampero (5,660-dwt
containership) at the Port of Palm Beach, Fla. It is believed they
entered the tainer where it was loaded before being taken to the
port. Investigators found bread, biscuits, crackers & jugs of
water. A hole was drilled in to let in air but the hole was blocked
by another container;

4.] 4 Nov. a cargo
of steel aboard M/V
King Ace (Panamanian.)
shifted while the ship was southeast of Kagoshima, Japan. After
developing a list, the vessel was towed the next day to Naha, Japan;

5.] 10 Nov.
M/V
Bandura-1 sank after
it was in a collision with M/V
Kota Bintang (Singaporean-registry)
at Chittagong, Bangladesh. Eight of the 9 crew of the sunken vessel
were rescued and 1 is missing;

8.] 12 Nov. five
crew are missing after the sinking of M/V
Don Ricardo (Antigua
and Barbuda-registry general cargo) in the western Aegean Sea between
the Greek islands of Kea &Macronissos. The Don Ricardo collided
with M/V Muhieddine VII
(Syrian-registry.) in
heavy fog;

9.] 19
Nov. M/V Green Lily
(Bahamian
refrigerated), sailing from Lerwick, Scotland, to Las Palmas in the
Canary Islands with frozen fish, had engine problems off the Shetland
Islands of Scotland. It was taken in tow by the Gargano (Italian tug)
but the tow parted and the Green Lily ran aground. Battered by high
winds and heavy seas, the ship broke up 20 Nov. with 1 dead;

10.] 21 Nov.
M/V Kate
Maersk(Danish-registry containership operated by Maersk Line) lost 26
containers in the Bay of Biscay. Weather conditions included high
winds. An investigation has reportedly shown that the containers were
improperly stowed and lashings were too slack;

13.] 24 Nov.
M/V An
Tai(Belize-registry general cargo ship) sank at Wharf 14 in the
North Port of Port Klang, Malaysia, after it began to flood at near
the No. 3 cargo hold;

14.] 26 Nov.
M/V
Kuroshima (Panamanian
motor refrigerated ship) has leaked about 100,000 gallons of fuel
that came ashore in Summer Bay, Alaska, polluting 2,400 feet of the
shoreine and another 1.6 miles of Summer Bay Lake. The ship ran
aground in high winds off Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Water depth in the
area is at most 7 feet and weather included winds of about 90 knots
and seas of 20 feet. Three crew & the chief officer were killed
while the 16 other crew members were rescued after a lifeboat was
pulled to shore by a line fired to the ship. M/V
Kuroshima had arrived
to load frozen seafood and had been anchored offshore but its anchor
chain snapped and it drifted;

17.] 30 Nov. a
French Dauphin helicopter & a British Coast Guard Sea King
helicopter rescued the crew of the M/V
MSC Rosa M (1,050-TEU
containership operated by Mediterranean Shipping Co.) after they
abandoned the ship in the English Channel. Weather included Beaufort
Force 5 or 6 conditions. The crew boarded lifeboats after the vessel
began listing off Cherbourg, France, after its cargo shifted. The
master attempted to return to the ship but abandoned the effort due
to the MSC Rosa M's 38-degree starboard list. The ship is to be
beached so that pumping operations can continue. The vessel had been
denied permission to enter Cherbourg;

***Pirate
Attacks More Severe ............. as In the first 9 months of
1997 pirates killed 45 seafarers, a 73% rise compared to the same
period last year, and injure other 28 according to the
International Maritime Bureau. It's Kuala Lumpur-based Regional
Piracy Center reports: "While the numbers of piratical attacks
have reduced from the same period last year, it should be noted
that there has been an increase in the severity of the attacks.
The number of hijackings & vessels that have been fired upon
has increased. There were 142 reported incidents of pirate attacks
on ships - down 16% year-on- year. Sixty-two attacks were on
vessels at anchor, 22 on ships alongside while 30 incidents
involved ships underway. S.E. Asia was a particular danger area
with 61 attacks of which more than half took place in Indonesia.

***London Reports 3rd
Quarter Losses ............ as the Institute of London
Underwriters reports that 13 vessels of more than 500 gross tons
were lost worldwide during the 3rd quarter. This year, 63 vessels
of 505,103 gross tons have been lost as of 30 Sept., compared to
75 of 520,626 gross tons in the same period for 1996. Numbers are
likely to change as more vessels are declared total constructive
losses. In the third quarter, 74 people were reported dead or
missing at sea, but for vessels under 500 gross tons, as many as
1,400 people were killed or are missing. Over the first 9 months
of 1996, 83 people were dead or missing.

***M/VMSC
Carla In Major
Container Disaster ............. as the forward section of the
2,868-TEU motor containership [built in 1972 at Landskrona,
Sweden; operated by Mediterranean Shipping Co.], sank 30 Nov.
in the Atlantic Ocean. The forward section took as many as 1,200
to the bottom. The ship broke into 2 pieces on early 25 Nov.
during a storm 110 miles north Sao Miguel Island in Portugal's
Azores Islands. The break-up was at 39 degrees 31 minutes north,
25 degrees 01 minutes west. Weather conditions reportedly included
30-foot seas & gale force winds. The ship broadcast a message
late 24 Nov. that its rudder had failed and 2 Portuguese from the
aft section. At least 3 crew suffered minor abrasions. The MSC
Carla's stern was taken in tow by the tug Fotiy
Krylov for San
Miguel Island and was still under tow at last report at 3 knots,
with a 6-degree starboard list, but was badly sheering. The MSC
Carla was sailing from Le Havre, France, to Boston with 2,400
containers and the surviving section of the ship reportedly has
about 1,000 containers aboard, including 410 FEUs. Forty-three
reefer containers have had their reefer systems restored. More,
France's Nuclear Safety Agency said 28 Nov. that some containers
aboard the MSC Carla contained medical equipment with radioactive
components. The agency said that 3 pieces of medical equipment
contained Cesium 137.

***The 2nd Vietnam War
.......... as hundreds of fishermen are among as many as 2,500
unaccounted for after Typhoon Linda hit four provinces of Vietnam
on 2 and 3 Nov. About 455 people were killed and 2,450 boats &
142,000 structures were destroyed. At least 1,132 small boats were
missing off the provinces of Ba Ria-Vung, Ben Tre, Ca Mau, Kien
Giang and Tra Vinh. At Con Dao, some 160 vessels sank.

NOTE:
Due to seasonal weather there were many, many more cargo vessel
groundings, barge losses, fires & other disasters we had no room
to report. Large loss of life was reported in the fishing fleets and
on ferries, but it does not involve cargo and is nor reported. It was
another BAD
month at sea. We mourn the many
vessels lost.

NOTE:
The historic dangers of carriage by sea continue to be quite real.
Shippers must be encouraged to purchase high quality marine cargo
insurance from their freight forwarder or customs broker. It's
dangerous out there. Buy the cargo insurance, before the
loss!